- Postcards
This delightful picturebook tells the story of Alejandro and Alexander. One is dressed in a blue bear suit and carries his blue bear; the other carries a red tiger and wears a red tiger suit. The twin narratives in Spanish (blue) and English (red) tell the story of their meeting as one exclaims, "¿Qué es eso? ¡Es un tigre rojo terrible!" and the other, "What is that? It is a terrible blue bear!" The simplicity of Rubio's colorful illustrations and dialogue make it easy for very young children to understand the story no matter which language they speak. The story's bilingualism should entice pre and new readers to play with the language they do not understand or speak. As the two boys discover what they have in common without understanding each other's words, they forge a bond that will entertain and entice children to worry less about language barriers and more about the common grounds of play and friendship.
Roxanne Harde
Gabriela Rubio
terrible terrible
Caracas, Venezuala: Ediciones ekaré, 2005.
ISBN: 843330607X
unp.
Picturebook
Ages 2+ [End Page 21]
The Adventure of Ahmad and the Clock written by Feresteh Ta'erpoor and illustrated by Mehrnoush Ma'soumian is an all around excellent bilingual book. With the English text being displayed alongside the Persian text, it is an ideal book for parents and educators striving to help children learn English, Persian or both languages simultaneously. The plot of the book revolves around Ahmad eagerly watching the clock, anticipating the arrival of the hour his father said they would go hiking together. With the aforementioned clock face appearing on every page, the book also provides an opportunity for children to begin learning how to tell time. Although a story about a boy watching a clock may strike some as potentially bland, Ta'erpoor tells the story in such a vibrant way and has created such an amicable character in the shape of Ahmad, that readers, young and old alike, will surely be captivated by Ahmad and his antics with the illustrations of Ma'soumian playing a crucial role in achieving this effect.
Robert McClure
Feresteh Ta'erpoor
The Adventure of Ahmad and the Clock
Illus. Mehrnoush Ma'soumian
Tehran: Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, 2012
ISBN: 9789643916800
32 p.
(Picturebook) [End Page 35]
Border Town, a new Scholastic book series by Malín Alegría about Mexican American teens in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, begins with Crossing the Line, also available in Spanish as Pueblo Fronterizo #1: Cruzar el Limite. Set near McAllen, a small town ten miles north of the border between Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico, the book's protagonist is Fabiola Garza, a tenth grader at Dos Rios High School. Her sister...