Kiki Koki La leyenda encantada del Coqui

K-Gr 2-In this Spanish-language picture book, Rodriguez presents one of the legends surrounding the unofficial symbol of Puerto Rico: the coquí. A Taíno boy, Kiki Kokí, does not like doing any work around his village. As a consequence, he is banned from attending the Moon Festival. A torrential rain sweeps the boy away and nearly drowns him until two frogs save his life. When discovering that the moon goddess has turned him into a little golden frog, Kokí is overcome with sadness. The lizard witch, Mona, tells him that he must remain in "Frogville" (la villa de las ranas) and do good deeds for 30 days before he can ask the goddess to change him back into a boy. Rodriguez takes artistic license with his full-color, Disney-like cartoon illustrations and cherry-picks period dress and architecture from the entire span of post-conquest Puerto Rican history. The frogs are depicted wearing everything from top hats to guayabera shirts, both of which were nonexistent in the 1500s. In addition, town life features snow-cone pushcarts and a SpongeBob-inspired pineapple house. Aside from this revoltijo (medley) of disparate details, the story and illustrations are entertaining and even introduce a motley gang of pirates who want to frognap and enslave all of Kokí's amphibian friends. Kokí saves the day and learns a lesson about the importance of cooperation. VERDICT Young readers will enjoy this Taíno Indian origin myth.-Mary Margaret Mercado, Pima County Public Library, Tucson, AZ © Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

An insolent Tano boy learns a valuable lesson in cooperative behavior when he is magically transformed into a tree frog in this Spanish-language retelling of a Puerto Rican folk tale. The good children living on the island of Borikn help their mothers and fathers with the daily fishing and fruit gathering and then attend the full moon festival. Kiki Kok is lazy and indifferent, declaring that the festival is stupid and that helping is no fun. Forbidden from attending, Kok runs away and is turned into a golden tree frog by the angry moon goddess. Kok must show, for 30 days, his willingness to help the other frogs, or he will remain a tree frog forever. The chastened Kok works with his new amphibian friends to clean, gather food and cook, and even demonstrates a newfound selflessness when he helps them escape a group of rat pirates. Impressed, the moon goddess sends him back home as a boy, and he becomes the best helper while still having fun. Former Disney designer Rodrguez takes the coqu frog, the Puerto Rican national symbol, and uses bold, opaque colors to capture it in a caricature that will be familiar to cartoon-savvy youngsters. The dense tropical forests contain both breech-clout-clad Indians and fanciful amphibian villages with modern conveniences. Previously self-published, this tale ably uses a modern artistic approach to tell an age-old tale of virtue and its rewards. (Spanish picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.