1. Elya, S. M., Martinez-Neal, J., & Andersen, H. C. (2018). La princesa and the pea. New York, NY: Scholastic.
Blog: In this bilingual twist on a classic fairy tale, the mother of a young prince does all she can to make sure that no maiden who is unworthy will win the heart of her son. The prince is very lonely and longs to find his princess, and when a girl comes along looking for a place to rest while on her journey home, the prince instantly falls in love. His mama searches through the garden for an elegant pea that is sure to determine whether this girl is truly the one. When the girl rises after a restless and painful night, the prince rejoices, secretly glad that—like his mama—he, too, had a trick up his sleeve. Martinez-Neal’s illustrations, featuring stylishly exaggerated figures rendered in warm tones and delicate lines, are inspired by the textile designs of the indigenous people of Peru. With eye-catching details on every page, this book is sure to capture the imaginations of young readers. Spanish words are sprinkled throughout, and clever rhymes make this a book to enjoy more than once.
Summary: The Princess and the Pea gets a fresh twist in this charming bilingual retelling. El príncipe knows this girl is the one for him, but, as usual, his mother doesn't agree. The queen has a secret test in mind to see if this girl is really a princesa, but the prince might just have a sneaky plan, too
Similar Titles: Twenty-six princesses by Dave Horowitz; What if... by Samantha Berger
2. Engle, M. (2019). Drum dream girl how one girl's courage changed music. Solon, OH: Findaway World, LLC.
Blog: Millo became a world-famous musician at quite a young age. Before fame, however, there is struggle. Millo longs to play the drums, but in 1930s Cuba, drumming is taboo for girls. This doesn't stop Millo. She dares to let her talent soar, playing every type of drum that she can find. Her sisters invite her to join their all-girl band, but their father refuses to allow Millo to play the drums. Eventually, her father softens, connecting her with a music teacher who determines that her talent is strong enough to override the social stigma. The rhythmic text tells Millo's story and its significance in minimal words, with a lyricism that is sure to engage both young children and older readers. Lopez's illustrations are every bit as poetic as the narrative, a color-saturated dreamscape that Millo dances within, pounding and tapping her drums. A beautiful account of a young girl's bravery and her important contribution toward gender equality in the creative arts.
Summary: Follows a girl in the 1920s as she strives to become a drummer, despite being continually reminded that only boys play the drums, and that there has never been a female drummer in Cuba.
Similar Titles: Virgie goes to school with us boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard; I want to be a drummer! by Mark Powers
3. Engle, M., López, R., & Guerro, A. (2019). Dancing hands: How teresa Carreño played the piano for President Lincoln. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Blog: This lyrical, imagery-rich text alternates between prose and free verse as it describes Teresa’s early childhood in Venezuela in the mid-1800s. When a revolution tears through the country, the young prodigy and her family move to New York, where she feels like an oddity and where a civil war also wreaks havoc. Concerts around the world, however, spare the newly proclaimed “Piano Girl” from much of this pain. An invitation from the White House to play for the grieving President Lincoln and his family almost turns disastrous due to a poorly tuned piano, but Teresa’s perseverance saves the evening in the story’s climax. Patterned mixed-media illustrations use color to evoke the lushness of Venezuela, the darkness of war, and the beauty of music. Concluding with a historical note, the biography’s vibrant images and language form a melodious composition.
Summary: As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too'the Civil War. Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. So famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the White House!
Similar Titles: Song in a rainstorm: the story of musical prodigy Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins by Glenda Armand; Honest Abe by Edith Kunhardt
4. Garza, C. L., Rohmer, H., & Schecter, D. (2003). Magic windows. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.
Blog: A collection of full-page reproductions of Lomas Garza's papel picado, cut-paper art, accompanied by short explanatory narratives in Spanish and English. The intricate cutouts have bold, thick lines and severe angles and the artist uses delicate connectors, such as cactus spines and corn silk, to hold the images together. Most of the cutouts are done with black paper, although a few are cut from yellow or blue paper, and all of them feature a generous use of negative space through which monochromatic backgrounds of yellows, blues, pinks, oranges, and greens are revealed. Many of the pictures present scenes of the Mexican-American artist's childhood and family, such as a close-up of her grandfather's hands cutting a nopal cactus. The remainder are scenes of Mexican flora and fauna, such as two hummingbirds drinking nectar from cactus flowers. A brief description accompanies each scene.
Summary: Through the magic windows of her cut-paper art, Carmen shows us her family, her life as an artist, and the legends of her Aztec past. Text is in English and Spanish.
Similar Titles: In my family by Carmen Lomas Garza; The coyote under the table: El coyote debajo de la mesa by Joe Hayes
5. Medina, J. (2019). Juana & Lucas. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Blog: Meet Juana, a lively and opinionated grade school girl growing up in Bogota, Colombia. She strongly dislikes wearing her hot and itchy school uniform but even more having to learn to speak English. Juana comes from a middle-class white family. She likes drawing, the superhero Astroman, and eating Brussels sprouts. She loves Bogota, reading, her mother, and her dog, Lucas. When she finds out they will be learning to speak English in school, Juana is not happy. She's got trouble enough with learning math. English is very hard. Told from Juana's point of view with humor and drama, using capitalized words, periods separating words for emphasis, and a good sprinkling of Spanish words throughout, the book makes clear there's a universality to Juana's story. The ink-and-watercolor cartoon-style illustrations are charming, but depictions of the city are less precise than those of its diverse inhabitants. Readers not familiar with Bogota will fail to get a real sense of place. And Juana's trouble with English? Suffice it to say a promised trip to the U.S.A. to meet Astroman proves to be a great incentive.
Summary: A spunky young girl from Colombia loves playing with her canine best friend and resists boring school activities, especially learning English, until her family tells her that a special trip is planned to an English-speaking place.
Similar Titles: Your name is a song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow; New words, new friends: evidence-based strategies to help children with different languages learn to play together! by Karen N. Nemeth
6. Montes, M., & Morales, Y. (2016). Los Gatos black on Halloween. New York: Sqaure Fish/Henry Holt and Company.
Blog: A cat's green eyes stare out from the book's cover. Inside, there are more of los gatos, as well as las brujas (witches), los fantasmas (ghosts), and los esqueletos (skeletons looking like they have come from a Dia de los Muertos celebration. The pithy, rhyming text tells a frightening, if familiar, story. The ghosts and ghoulies are off to a Monsters'Ball at Haunted Hall, and though there's plenty of scary stuff around, the guests are most frightened by the children who come knocking at the door for trick-or-treat. Montes' poem deserves exceptional artwork, and Morales obliges. Her soft-edged paintings glow with the luminosity of jewels, and her witches, werewolves, and corpses are frighteningly executed. Therein lies what may be a problem for preschoolers. These fiends aren't particularly kid-friendly; they are dead-eyed, Day of the Dead folk who scare. For slightly older children, however, this spookiness is what Halloween is all about. The Spanish is neatly integrated into the text, but for those who need clarification, a glossary is appended.
Summary: Rhyming text about Halloween night incorporates Spanish words, from las brujas riding their broomsticks to los monstruos whose monstrous ball is interrupted by a true horror.
Similar Titles: Black and bittern was night by Robert Heidbreder; Scary, scary Halloween by Eve Bunting
7. Mora, P., & Colón, R. (2005). Doña flor: A tall tale about a giant lady with a great big heart. New York: Knopf.
Blog: Most tall tales were written long ago and featured men as main characters. This book is an excellent exception. The author and illustrator have produced an easy-to-read story about a giant named Dona Flor. Her size is attributed to her mama's singing that made the corn grow as tall as trees and caused her daughter to grow and grow and grow. While Dona was teased when she was young because of her size, her willingness to help others soon turned her tormentors to fans. Her strong work ethic helps her build her own house and provide for all the animals and birds that come to her. Dona's selfless nature leads her to make tortillas every day to feed her many neighbors. When a mountain lion threatens the valley, Dona once again tames the beast and saves her people.
Summary: Dona Flor, a giant lady with a big heart, sets off to protect her neighbors from what they think is a dangerous animal, but soon discovers the tiny secret behind the huge noise.
Similar Titles: Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolen; The selfish giant by Oscar Wilde
8. Soto, & Guevara, S. (1997). Chato's kitchen. New York: G.P. Putnam.
Blog: Chato and Novio Boy, low-riding East Los Angeles homeboys of the feline variety, have dinner guests. The invitees, a family of five fat mice who just moved in next door, haven't an inkling that they are the intended main course. But when the mice bring along their friend Chorizo (a worldly mutt in a slouch beret) to share the grub, he thwarts the cats' connivings. This unlikely three-species chow-down is a sweet salute to Spanish cooking, with fajitas, frijoles, and quesadillas sharing center stage. Menace hangs in the air, yet it seems likely from the outset that the mice are more than capable of looking after themselves.
Summary: To get the little mice who have moved into the barrio to come to his house, Chato the cat prepares all kinds of good food: fajitas, frijoles, salsa, enchiladas, and more.
Similar Titles: Chester by Melanie Watt; Mr. Maxwell's mouse by Frank Asch
9. Third, R. T., & Bay, E. (2020). ¡Vamos!: Let's go eat. Boston: Versify, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Blog: Little Lobo is tasked with nourishing nine famished luchadores. He’s making a delivery to his friend El Toro at the Coliseo, but all of the luchadores have ordered very different things. Lobo heads to the food trucks parked outside ahead of the big show, and there readers can feast their eyes on all sorts of foods, from quesadillas to tamales and the stretchiest of stretchy cheeses. Each page is rich with words in Spanish, presented in a reader-friendly format with translations if needed. The spreads are dense with background detail, and readers can spend ages poring over them to discover something new in the scenery. The story is simplistic, so as to not draw away from what’s going on in each spread, and bilingual readers will have a laugh at things like a pair of pig luchadores being called Los Chicharrones or the food palomita being sold by a, well, palomita. This is a great way to learn about many different sorts of Mexican foods, not to mention picking up some Spanish along the way.
Summary: Little Lobo is excited to take in a show with wrestling star El Toro in his bustling border town. After getting lunch orders from The Bull and his friends to help prepare for the event, Little Lobo takes readers on a tour of food trucks that sell his favorite foods, like quesadillas with red peppers and Mexican-Korean tacos. Peppered with easy-to-remember Latin-American Spanish vocabulary, this glorious celebration of food is sure to leave every reader hungry for lunch!
Similar Titles: Vamos! Let's go to the market by Raul the Third; The bear ate your sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach
10. Velasquez, E. (2013). Grandma's gift. London: Walker Childrens.
Blog: Another memoir of Velasquez's boyhood visits with his grandmother in Spanish Harlem, this autobiographical, beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of a young boy discovering his passion for art and shows the importance of understanding one's heritage. This time it is Christmas. After helping to shop for ingredients and make her famous pasteles, Eric and his grandmother venture from El Barrio to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The boy has a school assignment to complete and together they discover the work of Diego Velazquez, including the famous portrait of Juan de Pareja. The woman nurtures the boy's fascination with painting by giving him art supplies for Christmas. This beautifully illustrated slice-of-life is sprinkled with Spanish phrases (all translated into English) and rich details about Puerto Rican traditions and culture.
Summary: The author describes Christmas at his grandmother's apartment in Spanish Harlem the year she introduced him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Diego Velazquez's portrait of Juan de Pareja, which has had a profound and lasting effect on him.
Similar Titles: Gifts of the heart by Patricia Polacco; The smallest gift of Christmas by Peter H. Reynolds
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