author: Alma Flor Ada
illustrator: Elivia Savadier
Atheneum/ Simon & Schuster, 2002
preschool-grade 3
Mexican American
In this winner of an Américas Award for
Children’s and Young Adult Literature, a little girl recounts her weekend
visits with her grandparents: Saturdays with her father’s English-speaking
European American parents and Sundays with her mother’s Spanish-speaking
Mexican American parents. With her Saturday visits illustrated and described on
the left of each spread y los domingos en la derecha, this youngster—as
bilingual children do—effortlessly code-switches. Although the author and
illustrator have set the Spanish words and phrases in a clear context so that
young English-speaking readers can extrapolate their meanings, some of the
writing remains clunky. For instance, “Abuelita is very proud of her Indian
blood because the Indians really know how to love the land.”
Savadier’s bright watercolor cartoon
illustrations show the joy of the little girl’s weekends. Recommended.
—Beverly Slapin
(published 4/7/13)
(published 4/7/13)
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