Customer Reviews

The Bossy Gallito/El Gallo de Bodas: A Traditional Cuban Folktale (Dual Language Edition)

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This is a wonderful children's book. It is a classic Latin American folktale. It was fun to travel with the Bossy Gallito to his uncle's wedding. Along the way, of course, he runs into some trouble and, well, you just have to read the rest! Although this classic cummulative story was familiar to my students, its illustrations captivated my second-grader's attention. We absolutely enjoyed this book! Another plus is that the book is bilingual. What more could you ask for? (For a comparison, try the same title written by Alma Flor Ada.)

This is a bilingual rendition of a classic 'cumulative' memory-story told with a Cuban accent. A cocky little rooster sets out to attend the wedding of his uncle, but dirties his beak on the path. He asks in turn for help, futilely, from the grass, a goat, a stick, a fire, and the water, until he finally thinks of asking the Sun, who aids him in reward for his daily morning wake-up crowing. Both the English and the Spanish utilize the kind of rhythmic repetition that helps children master syntactical functions of sequence and subordinative clauses, but what the read-to child will hear is the fun, not the pedagogy.

The pictures are as bright and sassy as Cuban music -- think "Buena Vista Social Club" for pre-schoolers -- with tropical birds playing dominoes and selling churros on the street. Neither the pictures nor the Spanish idioms are restricted to Cuba; instead they're charmingly generic Latin American, so no one needs to get huffy about portraying Cuba benignly. The book includes a little glossary and a few 'cultural notes' for the benefit of the adult readers.

Purchased Book for an education class and fell in love with book The Bossy Gallito is a classic which I will keep in my library