Rosa Raposa [Hardcover]

F. Isabel Campoy (Author), Jose Aruego (Illustrator), Ariane Dewey (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Jaguar, the sharp-toothed, beady-eyed bully, is determined to eat Rosa Raposa for dinner. But Jaguar had better watch out, because clever Rosa has some surprises in store for him! In three hilarious South American trickster episodes, Rosa uses her sharp imagination to make Jaguar look like the biggest fool in the forest.
F. Isabel Campoy and bestselling illustrators Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey have created a story that will keep readers wondering how Rosa Raposa will get the last laugh this time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Campoy relays a trio of rather flat trickster tales set in the Amazon rain forest, where the title character, crafty Fox, thrice gets the best of beady-eyed, sharp-toothed Jaguar. Two tales follow a predictable path: in the first, after Jaguar brags that he has tricked a monkey into freeing him from the boulder-covered hole in which he was trapped, Rosa convinces him to demonstrate how he escaped (she then rolls the boulder over the hole again to ensure he stays there); in the second, sly Rosa asks Jaguar to tie her to a tree so she will not be carried away by a fictitious approaching cyclone, prompting Jaguar to demand that she tie him securely to the tree first (after which she happily abandons him). In the third, more convoluted tale, a parched Rosa uses honey from a beehive to fashion a disguise of leaves so that she can slip past Jaguar to quench her thirst at the river. Throughout, both the characters and the plot fall short of clever, making for a rather ho-hum read. Artist duo Aruego and Dewey (Antarctic Antics) contribute vividly hued art-Jaguar sports a bright blue coat with butter-colored spots and half-moons, Rosa's fur is a zigzag fusion of orange and pink-rendered in pen and ink, gouache, watercolor and pastel. The animals' changeable facial expressions add a welcome dose of humor to these capers. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Campoy sets three Spanish trickster tales in the Amazon Rainforest, where a little fox uses her wits to extricate herself from Jaguar's bullying threats. In "A Cry for Help," Chango-monkey helps Jaguar when he is trapped in a hole, only to be threatened by the hungry animal when he is free again. Rosa goads Jaguar into showing them once more how he was snared, and then leaves him there. In "A Strong North Wind," Rosa is caught by Jaguar, pretends there is a hurricane, and convinces her adversary to be tied to a tree so he won't blow away. In "The Green Dress," Rosa outwits not only Jaguar, but angry bees as well, and calls to Jaguar from one side of a wide river, "I hope I don't see you again." "Oh, you will, Rosa Raposa, you will," responds her nemesis on the other side, slinking away, raising readers' hopes that more stories are on the way. The pen-and-ink, gouache, watercolor, and pastel illustrations are wonderful, bright, and saucy. This is a delightful book for read-alouds, reinforcing the idea that brains are better than brawn.
Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152021612
• ISBN-13: 978-0152021610
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,699,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ABOUT Latina Author ISABEL CAMPOY

I was born by the Mediterranean Sea in a town called Alicante. Alicante is an ideal vacation place in Spain for both national and international tourists, so during my childhood I was always in contact with family and friends from all over the world.

My father was a professor of English who wanted his children to become proficient in as many languages as possible. His encouragement, along with my contact with so many tourists, instilled in me a great desire to travel and experience other cultures from very early on. My favorite books as a child were always books of adventure, from the medieval chivalric romances and the pirates of Sandocán to Treasure Island, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But perhaps my favorite of all times is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

My curiosity for all things far and different was nurtured by my father's vast collection of National Geographic magazines. They covered one side of our hallway from floor to ceiling, with copies that went back as far as 1924. Each picture was a promise of a new adventure, and I started writing about them in a huge accounting book my brother and I shared. He wrote the names of soccer players and winning teams; I documented the products of my fertile imagination. My first published story was about a snowman. I was eleven, and I had never seen snow.

At age 16, after taking many competitive examinations, I won a scholarship as an exchange student to Trenton, Michigan. I finally convinced my mother to let me go, and that winter, I saw snow--almost daily! I feel as though I have been traveling ever since.

In my twenties, I crossed Europe and fell in love with mythology in Greece. Years later, I wrote down many legends of the Hispanic world. Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey also fascinated me and inspired my research into Arabic contributions to the histories of Spain and Latin America.

Whether in Asia or Micronesia, Africa or the Middle East, or from Mexico to Patagonia, I have always found reason to admire other cultures and reflect on them. Perhaps that is why I write about Hispanic art, artists, theatre, poetry and folklore: In the process of looking at other cultures, I discovered the beauty and richness of my own.



F. ISABEL CAMPOY is the author of numerous children's books in the areas of poetry, theatre, stories, biographies, and art. As a researcher she has published extensively bringing to the curriculum an awareness of the richness of the Hispanic culture. She is an educator specialized in the area of literacy and home school interaction, topics on which she lecturers nationally. An internationally recognized scholar devoted to the study of language acquisition, a field in which she started publishing in l973 after obtaining her degree in English Philology from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain; and post graduate work in Reading University in England, and UCLA in the United States. Among others, she is the recipient of Junior Guild Award, ALA Notable Book Award, San Francisco Library Award, and the 2005 Reading the World Award from the University of San Francisco.