#27 I Love Saturdays y domingos

Title:  I love Saturdays y domingos

 

Author:  Alma Flor Ada

Illustrator: Elivia Savadier

Publisher:  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Copyright: 2002

Pages:  28

Genre/Category:  Multicultural

I chose this book because I love how it shows the differences and similarities in the American culture and Spanish culture. This book focuses on a little girl who has two sets of grandparents. Two are American, and the other two are Spanish. On the left side of the page, she talks about what she does with her American grandparents, and on the right side of the page, she talks about what she does with her Spanish grandparents.

The illustrations in this book are done in watercolor. The colors are mostly pastels with a lot of white space in the background. For the majority of the book, the characters and objects around them take center stage and consist of the most detail. Most of the background and surrounding areas are white. There are a few simple backgrounds. The illustrations in the book are formally situated with text on top or below the illustrations. 

I think this book would be difficult for the youngest elementary students, so I would have to recommend it for third grade and above. There are not only a lot of vocabulary words in the book, but there are a lot of Spanish phrases. Most of the phrases are direct translations from the opposite page, but you have to be paying very close attention to what was said regardless. There is not a glossary in the back, so you have to rely on the American grandparents for your translations. This book would be great to talk about different cultures and how some cultures do things differently in their traditions or events they celebrate. There are plenty of vocabulary words used in this book, so I would definitely use this book to introduce students to the Spanish language.