Maria Had a Little Llama/María tenía una llama pequeña by Angela Dominguez (review)

The ever-popular Mary and her little lamb have been transplanted to Peru, becoming Maria and her mischievous llama in this bilingual adaptation. Dominguez maintains the nursery rhyme fairly intact in the English text, which is set in slightly bolder type than its Spanish counterpart, altering only the girl and her pet's names and changing just a few verbs. She also opts for a direct translation, so the Spanish text doesn't scan but definitely aids language learning in either direction. The gouache and ink illustrations add interest to an old standby by providing an authentic Andean mise-en-scène, complete with panflutes and village markets. Scratchy outlines and slanted verticals keep things playful, and Maria, with her cute face framed by a distinctive red chullo, and the llama, with a charming gait and a disarming, oddly human smile, are frankly adorable. Use this as a multicultural element in a nursery rhyme storytime, or as a solid addition to a bilingual storytime program.