The Bossy Gallito: A Traditional Cuban Folk Tale/El Gallo De Bodas (English and Spanish Edition) - Hardcover

Text: English, Spanish

Kindergarten-Grade 5-This classic, cumulative, bilingual story from Cuba centers around a greedy little rooster (gallito) who gobbles up some corn and gets mud on his beak. He asks the grass to clean it off, but the grass says, "'I will not.'" He then asks a goat to eat the grass, receives the same response, requests a stick to hit the goat, with the same result, and so on. At last he politely asks the sun- who owes him a favor for crowing it up every morning-to solve the problem, and all the other entities involved back down. Beak cleaned, the gallito is sharp-looking for his Uncle Parrot's wedding. The text is in a slightly syncopated verse that reads just as well in English as it does in Spanish. Indeed, the cadence may make the connection between the two languages clearer than it would be otherwise. The mixed-media illustrations are intriguing. Delacre uses birds native to the Caribbean as anthropomorphic characters; they observe traditional wedding customs, all of which are explained in the back of the book in both Spanish and English. Both text and pictures are bordered by ovals, giving the pages a formal, framed look that points up the riotous colors of the artwork and the action of the story. A fine introduction to Cuban folklore that adapts itself well either to ESL classrooms or story times.
Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.