Nina Bonita (Children's Books from Around the World) [Hardcover]

Ana Maria Machado (Author), Rosana Faria (Illustrator), Elena Iribarren (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996 | Age Level: 4 and up | Series: Children's Books from Around the World

This beautiful and charming story deals with a sensitive subject in a sensitive way. "Black is beautiful" to a little white rabbit and while trying to discover the secret that will make him black, readers get a funny, yet educational introduction to genetics. Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-A young girl living in a coastal South American town has a blacker skin tone than any of her family members or playmates. A white rabbit, entranced by the girl's skin, "dark and glossy, just like a panther in the rain," implores her to reveal her beauty secrets. Nina Bonita, who doesn't really know why she's so dark, gives the rabbit three ridiculous possibilities, which he duplicates with disappointing results. Persistently, the rabbit asks for a fourth explanation, and the final one is provided by the girl's mother-the child is the same color as her black grandmother. The white rabbit, satisfied with a truthful answer, proceeds to marry a black rabbit and produce a plethora of children of various hues. With its unique setting and engaging characterizations, this gentle and entertaining exploration of mixed-race families is appealing. Soft, colored-pencil illustrations depict Nina Bonita and the rabbit in the larger context of a diverse village where people live comfortably despite superficial differences. This translation has retained the rhythmic cadences of the Spanish language, making it suitable for reading aloud.
Tana Elias, Meadowridge Branch Library, Madison, WI
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A beautiful young black girl's island home is featured in the story of a white rabbit's attraction to the black girl's beauty and its efforts to change its color. The black girl leads him on about the origins of her skin color until the truth comes out and Mr. Rabbit decides to make some changes to enrich his life. -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 24 pages
• Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916291634
• ISBN-13: 978-0916291631
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Story About a Beautiful Girl., January 24, 2001

By 

Victoria G. Tullman (Tampa, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nina Bonita: A Story (Children's Books from Around the World) (Paperback)

I loved this book! We're a bilingual family and when we first read this story in Spanish, my children and I laughed and squealed with delight. The language is uniquely latin, and the author uses the words pu-pu for poop, and pipi for pee which made us really laugh.

But the sweetness of the story is really how the little white bunny fell in love with the little black girls' striking beauty, and determined that if he himself could not look like her, then he would seek to marry a black and beautiful rabbit, and perhaps have children who were beautiful and dark.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!, March 15, 2002

By 

S. Huber "Panamanian Goddess" (Mill Creek, Washington United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nina Bonita: A Story (Children's Books from Around the World) (Paperback)

A very sweet story.. beautifully illustrated! As a bilingual mom of a 5 month-old baby, I enjoyed reading this book. Although the title suggest a book in Spanish, it's actually beautifully written in English.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "What makes your skin so dark and so pretty?", July 4, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nina Bonita: A Story (Children's Books from Around the World) (Paperback)

A beautiful, dark-skinned little girl who lives near the seaside is the inspiration for this utterly charming tale about differences and the acceptance of others. Nina Bonita has "eyes like two shiny black olives", hair that is pitch black and curly and skin that is "dark and glossy like a panther in the rain". When her mother arranges her hair into tiny braids, she looks like a princess of Africa or "a fairy from the Kingdom of the Moon".

One day a white rabbit, with pink ears and dark red eyes, inquires, "What is your secret? What makes your skin so dark and pretty?" Since she doesn't know what to say, Nina Bonita answers that when she was a baby, black ink spilled on her. The rabbit pours ink all over himself and, sure enough, he is black... for a while. Then the rain washes all the ink away. Nina says, "I drank lots of hot coffee" and the rabbit drinks so much coffee that he can't go to sleep, but he doesn't turn black; "I ate lots of blackberries", so he does, but he doesn't turn black, although he does get a terrible stomach ache. The rabbit is very discouraged, at a loss of an explanation until Nina Bonita's mother exclaims, "She looks just like her grandmother!"

The riddle is solved! The rabbit suddenly understands that if he marries a black rabbit, they will have bunnies in all shades of black, white and gray. And that's exactly what happens, baby bunnies in every shade. The softly-colored illustrations of Nina's seaside life reflect the subtle nuances of a tale of color and differences, imaginatively written with great wisdom, a simple lesson about acceptance. Luan Gaines/2006.