Customer Reviews

Vegetable Dreams/Huerto sonado (Bilingual in English/Spanish)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Featuring a bilingual text in both the English and the Spanish, Vegetable Dreams/Huerto Sonado by Dawn Jeffers features museum quality illustrations by Claude Schneider and is the story of a Erin, a young woman and her pursuit of a personal dream to grow and maintain a garden. Captivating young readers with an engaging and entertaining story line, Vegetable Dreams/Huerto Sonado follows Erin as she meets Mr. Martinez and their friendship which slowly progresses as the two of them care for her increasingly attractive and productive garden. A confidently recommended addition to school and community library bi-lingual picturebook collections, Vegetable Dreams/Huerto Soñado is an impressively written and illustrated tale of a multi-generational friendship, created and strengthened through the care and love for a simple vegetable garden.

Tomatoes, peppers, dreams and recollections, mixed with soft illustrations, gives you a heartfelt read.

The truth of the matter is, within the very first paragraph, although quite simple, the pull to find out what was going to happen had already captured me:

"Erin jumped out of bed. She ran downstairs where her parents were eating breakfast. She couldn't wait to tell them about her garden dream."

Why was Erin so eager to describe this dream? Would this dream be achieved? How would her parents react? These and a few other questions popped in my head and I judged the author's capability to foresee questions she foreshadowed in her first paragraph and how they would come about in Vegetable Dreams. Dawn Jeffers did a superb job answering them and allowing me to reflect my own dreams and inspirations as Erin pursued her own.

The book breezes along at a quick pace, and the bilingual aspect is truly educational for all, with a vocabulary index at the back.

At times a book comes along with the notion it is only geared for children; yet in Vegetable Dreams, its message and inclusion of an adult man's own family reflections truly aim to please both, the young and old at heart. The artist, Claude Schneider, manages to bring the story to life using soft, chalk-like drawings, bringing Dawn Jeffers' treasure Vegetable Dreams close to a reader's heart.

I highly recommend this 32 page picture story book for all families to read and share.

Reviewed by Stephanie and Parish (age 3) Rollins for Reader Views (4/07)

"Vegetable Dreams/Huerto sonado" is written in both English and Spanish. In "Vegetable Dreams," Erin wants to raise a garden. Her mother and father tell her that it is too much work. Her neighbor decides, with the parents' permission, to help her raise a garden.

She picks out the seeds, plants them, and harvests the vegetables. Parish kept pointing to the tomato, but she thinks it is an apple. She keeps arguing with me about that.

The pictures are light and airy. Parish was drawn to the one with the little girl crying while sitting on a swing. She likes Erin 's long dress. We read this a week before planting our garden. This really got her excited about helping us plant the seeds.

The words are easy-to-read for beginning readers. "Vegetable Dreams/Huerto sonado" is a wonderful book for both English and Spanish-speaking children. I recommend it.

Reviewed by Susan Langford for Reader Views (5/06):

The author's main point of the book is about hard work and determination with an up lifting tale of dreams fulfilled. I think the Dawn Jeffers was very successful with this story. The story is well written and easy to read to children and easy for them to understand.

I read the story to my nieces that are 4, 3 and 3 and they really enjoyed it. They have a very close relationship with my father and he has a garden that they help him with so when I read about the tomatoes in the garden they associated very well and understood. My nieces and I enjoyed the story and it was easy to read, not too long and not too short. Great pictures for me, but I think that Sara, the four year old, would have liked for the pictures to be more like photographs. She thought a child had colored the pictures.

I think the book would be great for any office where families have to wait or in libraries, because both Hispanics and English speaking family can use it.

Book received free of charge

Rebeccasreads highly recommends VEGETABLE DREAMS - HUERTO SONADO as an enchanting tale of family, gardens, neighbors, friendship & growing food for the table.

With Claude Schneider's endearing, bright illustrations, this bilingual story unfolds in a dreamy gentleness, that has you yearning to start gardening, digging the soil, going to the seed store & tending the plants that come up.

What are your favorite vegetables?

VEGETABLE DREAMS/HUERTO SOÑADO

Bi-lingual

Text: Dawn Jeffers

Illustration: Claude Schneider

ISBN 0-9741992-9-X

Raven Tree Press LLC $16.95

When a neighbor offers to help her plant a garden, the whole family gets involved. Throughout the growing season, she learns a lesson about hard work and friendship as well as the satisfaction (and rewards) of a job well done.

A simple story told in both English and Spanish with a short dictionary in the back. The story is embellished with soft Monet-like illustrations I wouldn't mind framing.

A sweet, hope-filled story with many subtle but profound messages of the joy of working together, the satisfaction found in working toward a goal, that the rewards far outweigh effort expanded and that we must work to make our dreams a reality.

---Author's Choice Reviews: Carolyn R. Scheidies