Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 2. With a Spanish translation that flows smoothly and sounds natural, this pleasant bilingual picture book focuses on little Lucy and her mother, who journey from an unnamed Latin American country to visit their relatives in Ohio. The story begins with the excitement of the plane trip, followed quickly by culture shock. Everything is so strange. Cousin Robby's dog, Sparky, motivates Lucy to learn English so she is able to communicate, and through this process, Lucy comes to know her American family and finally begins to enjoy her visit. The illustrations, with pink-cheeked characters and homey scenes of the Ohio farm, are very appealing, contributing greatly to the story's simple, firmly delineated message about language and culture. --Stella Clark Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
For Lucy, a young visitor from south of the border, the Ohio home of her aunt and uncle is a very exotic place. Her Uncle John greets her with the strange-sounding "How'r you?" and the Midwestern landscape has "no banana groves in sight. No flamingos, no lagoons." What's more, everyone except Lucy speaks English even Sparky the dog. Chapra (Amelia's Show-and-Tell Fiesta) makes excellent use of the bilingual text, underscoring the contrast between Lucy's discomfort and growing ease with her new surroundings (the English text appears at the top of each page, the Spanish at the bottom), while Escriv 's (-P!o Peep!: Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes) subtly stylized, mural-like full-page and spot illustrations exude empathy for Lucy in her struggles. Their heroine finally reaches her breaking point (a tearful exit from the family table) but the soothing tones of the prose, and the gentle contours and textures of the drawings assure readers that all will be well. Sure enough, Lucy realizes that Sparky is muy simp tico a moment Escriv wryly conveys with Sparky gamely allowing Lucy to ride on his back and this new friendship inspires her to ask her cousin Robby to teach her English. By book's end, Lucy has become a confident doggie wrangler, and readers whether they are budding bi-linguists or no will declare this story muy bueno. Ages 4-7. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Lucy is excited about her first trip to the United States to visit family in Ohio. When she and her mother arrive, the child finds that the landscape is very different from her native land and that the language people speak sounds hostile and frightening. Even the family dog, Sparky, doesn't understand her commands and entreaties. Lucy is terribly homesick until she decides to ask her cousin Robby to teach her a few words of English. By the end of the summer, she is able to master the language well enough to play with Sparky. The text in both languages is a bit dense for the intended audience, but would work well as a read-aloud. The English and Spanish appear separately on the same page, but some intermingling of the two occurs occasionally without being intrusive. Escrivá's watercolor illustrations are delightful and detailed, complementing the story well. A solid choice for storytimes and for libraries looking to reflect a common immigrant experience of their youngest patrons. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Something of the tenderness of 1960s and '70s picture books suffuses this bilingual tale of a young girl's trip with her mother from tropical Latin America to Ohio to visit relatives. Lucy is excited to meet her extended family, but also notes the differences between her world of banana trees and flamingos and their Ohio farm, as well as the difficulties of not being able to make herself understood to English-only speakers. She especially wishes she could communicate her homesickness to Sparky, her cousin Robby's dog. With Robby's help, Lucy begins to learn English and to feel more at home. Chapra's text and its accompanying Spanish translation, full of details and Lucy's emotions, avoid the choppy simplicity of easy-reader texts for longer and more complex sentences, interweaving Spanish and English together where appropriate. Escrivá's illustrations are detailed, lushly colored, and employ an accentuated roundness, especially in the over-sized heads of her characters, that combines realism and cartoon. Sweet, languid and full of family warmth, this is perhaps better suited to one-on-one parent-child readings than group read-alouds and should prove especially useful where immigration and separated families are part of the local fabric. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
