Summary: Los gatos and other monsters are having a great time at the Monsters Ball on Halloween night. Suddenly, the party comes to a halt when some kids come knocking on the door to do their trick-or-treating. The monsters are so scared that they decide to hide until the children leave.
Montes, M. (2006). Los gatos black on Halloween. New York, NY: Henry Holt and
Company.
My Impressions: Since this bilingual story won the Pura Belpra Award in 2008, I was really looking forward to reading it and it did not disappoint. The rhyme in the story is not only fun to read, it flows effortlessly. The Spanish vocabulary was simple enough to interpret, but I liked that the book had a glossary to help with the translation and pronounciations of the words. My only concern were the illustrations, though they were beautiful, they seemed a little too scary for younger readers.
Prfessional Review:
From Booklist (2006):
"Montes'
evocative poem deserves exceptional artwork, and Morales obliges. Her soft-edged
paintings glow with the luminosity of jewels, and her witches, werewolves, and
corpses are frighteningly executed. Therein lies what may be a problem for
preschoolers. These fiends aren't particularly kid-friendly; they are dead-eyed,
Day of the Dead folk who scare. For slightly older children, however, this
spookiness is what Halloween is all about. The Spanish is neatly integrated into
the text, but for those who need clarification, a glossary is appended."
— Ilene Cooper[Review of Los Gatos Black on Halloween]. (2006). Booklist. Retrieved from www.booklist.com
Library Use: This book would be a fun and easy read during Halloween time. It would also be an engaging way to introduce a few simple Spanish vocabulary terms.
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