Cuddled and Carried / Consentido y Cargado (“Beginnings” Collection)

author: Dia L. Michels

translator: Victory Productions (text)
translator: The Spanish Group (teachers’ guide / back matter) 
illustrator: Mike Speiser

Science, Naturally! 2018, 2019

preschool

A year after its publication, Cuddled and Carried / Consentido y Cargado is being re-released in a 6 x 8-inch edition, with a new teacher's guide and supplemental back matter. The book is also still available in a larger format in paperback and hardback.

Rather than pre-readers themselves, the target audience appears to be parents and preschool teachers. Rather than being geared to very young children, this series uses an adult framework. Even with illustrations, the vocabulary is far beyond what pre-readers can relate to. Words such as “grooms,” “guides,” “cuddles,” “snuggles,” “shelters,” “nurtures,” “nuzzles,” and “nourishes” lose pre-readers. 

Six pages of back matter are presented in very small type, and text, illustrations and activities appear to be tailored to students way beyond preschool—more likely, at grades 5-up. The first part contains definitions and activities, including a list and description of  “Animal Classes / Clases de animales” (Bird / Pájaro, Reptile / Reptil, Fish / Pez, Mammal / Mamífero, Amphibian / Anfibio, and Arthropod / Artrópodo). This section instructs students to match the animals pictured in the book to its correct class, and identify which classes appear more than once, and which do not appear at all. Another section, “Care and Attachment / Cuidado y Apego,” includes Cache Mammals / Mamíferos que escondan, Follow Mammals / Mamíferos que siguen, Nest Mammals / Mamíferos que anidan, and Carry Mammals / Mamíferos que carman; and instructs students to “review the definitions provided here and try to match the mammals in this book to the way the mother cares for her babies.” 

Except for the excellent cover illustration, Speiser’s watercolor artwork is for the most part flat, with a limited range of colors and shades; and lacking texture and feeling. The animals in some are naturalistic and in others, exhibit human expressions. The design is awkward, with illustrations falling into the gutters and cutting off the images. (In one case, the mama elephant’s left ear is cut off and, on the other side, parts of the mama seal’s head and body are chopped off.) The full-bleed spreads, while somewhat better, still do not come together smoothly.

Almost all of the Spanish translations—in the text and the back matter—are either incorrect or presented in standard American English rather than standard or colloquial Spanish. Here are a few examples:

• “Consentido” means “consented” or “indulged,” not “cuddled,” which would be “acurrucado” or “abrazado.” “Cargado” means “loaded,” not “carried.” When a diaper is full, it’s said to be “encargado.” “Carried” would be “llevado.”

• “Mi mamá me limpia” means “my mom cleans me,” which is appropriate, but it’s not a translation of “My mama grooms me,” which would be “Mi mamá me prepara.” (Animals sometimes groom each other and humans sometimes groom their animals, but human moms don’t groom their young children, so this example in English is meaningless to pre-readers.)  

• “Mi mamá me mima” means “my mom pampers me,” not “My mama snuggles me.” That would be, as above, “Mi mamá me accurruca.”

• “Mi mamá me da calor” means “My mom makes me hot” or “My mom gives me warmth,” rather than “My mom cuddles me,” which would sound better as “Mi mamá me abraza.” 

The final two-page spread depicts a family, whose members are sitting together on a couch. In English, the text reads, “My family loves me very much,” and it’s translated as, “Mi familia me da mucho amor.” This is literal, word-for-word Spanish; no one talks like that. Rather, it would be “Mi familia me quieren mucho” or “Mi familia me ama mucho.”

And, finally, that everyone in a Black family (dad, baby, grandma,  mom, older sister) is depicted with the exact same complexions, eyes, eyebrows, noses, and teeth—and, except for one of them, the exact same facial expressions—is a racist trope.

Books that are presented as bilingual or multilingual must be faithful to both or all of the languages. Especially when they’re marketed as educational materials for children, there is no room for error. Cuddled and Carried / Consentido y Cargado does not meet this important criterion and is not recommended.

—Beverly Slapin

(published 9/11/19)

Míl gracias a mis amigas y colegas, María Cárdenas y Judy Zalazar Drummond.

Babies Nurse / Así alimentan los bebés

author: Phoebe Fox

translator (poetry): Zahydée Gonzalez, 

Victory Productions

translator (back matter): The Spanish Group

illustrator: Jim Fox 

Platypus Media, 2018 

preschool-grade 2

In this cross-species tribute to mothering and motherhood, youngest readers and listeners will find short, rhyming poems in English and Spanish that partner with luminous artwork. The diverse cast of mammal moms and their young includes horses, tigers, monkeys, seals, zebras, dogs, pandas, bats, polar bears, cats, deer, dolphins, and humans. 

Fox’s soft, evocative watercolor-and-pencil portraits, each of a particular mammal mom and her young in their natural environments—on the ground, in the snow, in a glade, underwater, on 

a tree, upside down, on the beach—are gentle and quiet, effectively complementing the text and communicating to young readers the tenderness of the nursing experience. The single-page illustrations work better than those on the double-page spreads, which, unfortunately, often result in gutter loss. 

In outstanding examples of “show, don’t tell,” each quatrain (abcb) in English followed by its Spanish counterpart is as soothing and warm as the art accompanying it. Although some of English text seems a little forced, for the most part it’s very good. And rather than an attempt to mimic the English, Zahydée Gonzalez’ beautiful Spanish interpretations of the artwork maintain their own rhythm and syntax, independently showing the story of each painting. Her technique recognizes and honors young hablantes and their parents and teachers.

For older readers of English only, the back matter (“Did You Know? / ¿Sabías?”) is informative and enjoyable. Among other things, they will discover that: horses can’t vomit or burp, tigers can’t purr, and monkeys hold hands when they groom each other. However, it’s unfortunate that the Spanish contains numerous errors. For instance, while the English text states that seals can  hold their breath and sleep under water “by resting half their brain at a time,” the Spanish translation states that they do this by “adormeciendo una mitad del cerebro a la vez” (numbing one half of the brain at a time). “Resting” would be “descansando.”

In this form, the back matter is useless for older readers who are hablantes and / or English speakers who want to become fluent in Spanish. This issue places an additional burden on Spanish-speaking teachers, who would have to end the book on page 21 and verbally modify the text or summarize the information in the back matter.

Any book—especially one for children—that’s presented as bilingual or multilingual must be faithful to both or all of the languages. If and when the Spanish errors in the back matter are corrected, Babies Nurse / Así se alimentan los bebés will be highly recommended. But as it is now, we can’t in good conscience recommend it. 

—Beverly Slapin

(published 9/5/19)

Míl gracias a mis amigas y colegas, María Cárdenas y Judy Zalazar Drummond.