Count on Culebra: Go from 1 to 10 in Spanish
Kindergarten-Grade 3—This follow-up toMañana Iguana(2004) andFiesta Fiasco(2007, both Holiday House) features the same four friends. When Iguana stubs her toe on a stone, she is unable to make a pan of her famous cactus-butterdulces(candies). Everyone has suggestions, but it is Culebra (snake) who finds the cure. He tells Tortuga (turtle) and Conejo (rabbit) to tie a rope to Iguana's tale and attach "unrolling pin," "doskettles," "tresskillets," and so on, all the way up to "diezspoons." As the lizard walks around, the resulting clatter soon causes her to forget about her injury, and the friends work together to make the sweets. This slapstick tale seamlessly incorporates Spanish counting words as well as animal names. At the end, the animals are shown enjoying the treats, for which a no-cook recipe is appended, along with a glossary and pronunciations. The bright, cheerful cartoons, done in vibrant Southwestern hues, are set against white backgrounds. The characters' faces are expressive and their actions humorously exaggerated. Which will young listeners remember more, the "uno, dos, tres" or the "PLINK, PLANK, PLANG, BLATTER, BLITTER, BLING" of the kitchen utensils? Whichever it is, they will have fun with this book, and perhaps those Spanish names will stick.—Marian Drabkin, formerly at Richmond Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.