In Eight Animals Play Ball (Putnam, $16), one of this spring's more unusual baseball-themed works, four-to-eight-year-olds can soak up the game -- and some Spanish as well. Written by Susan Middleton Elya and illustrated by Lee Chapman, this fiesta-bright picture book incorporates Spanish vocabulary into its rhyming tale about a ragtag team of ball-playing beasts. Kids learn the Espanol for bat ("bate") and baseball ("beisbol") and such useful phrases as "hey, batter!" ("Eh, bateador!"). -- Alicia Potter School Library Journal Grade 1-3. Eight amigos return for their third book together. Each creature heads to the park, bringing along a different item --roller skates, a soccer ball, a kite, a football, and a baseball bat. Deciding that they want to play something together, the animals start a baseball game with Cat's bat. Trouble quickly ensues when Horse, Cat, and Pig become competitive and ruin the fun. A rainstorm forces the animals to quit their game, but it also provides the necessary distraction to end their bickering. This rhyming picture book blends English and Spanish text, making it a wonderful choice for bilingual storytimes, English speakers learning Spanish, or Spanish speakers learning English. The vibrant artwork, rendered in oil pastels, depicts the eight animales and their surroundings in a cartoon style. Colorful borders and vivid background colors frame each page. A glossary and pronunciation guide appear right up front to assist readers with unfamiliar words. A winner for collections needing Spanish-language materials, or materials for ESOL students. --Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle School Public Library, Centereach, NY Booklist PreS-Gr. 1. Another inventive offering from the team that brought readers Eight Animals Bake a Cake (2002). When eight animal buddies go to the park, they take various toys and equipment, such as Raton the mouse's roller skates and Pajaro the bird's kite. But they decide to play baseball because they can do it together. Umpire Vaca's call leads to a few hard feelings, but when it starts to rain, sharing coats and wings as shelter brings them all together again. Elya produces a bouncy, rhymed story that mixes English and Spanish words in a way that teaches both. Chapman's fiesta-colored cartoon-style art neatly portrays the characters and the fun. Each image sits in its brightly bordered frame, and each frame usually includes a direct word translation: strike equals estrai! A merry way to teach a little English, a little Spanish, and lots of good cooperation. A glossary and pronunciation guides are included. -- GraceAnne A. DeCandido Selected for the 2004 edition of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library |
Eight Animals Play Ball |
The A List, Family Fun Magazine |
Kirkus Mira! having gone On the Town (2000) and tried to Bake a Cake (2002) together, eight contentious friends rumble out to the parque to play. But what? Each has brought different equipment. Deftly folding Spanish words -- translated in an opening glossary, in the rainbow borders around the glowing, smile-laden, folk-art flavored paintings, and in context too -- into her infectious rhyme, Elya takes her menagerie from quarrel to consensus, then through a spirited game of beisbol abruptly terminated by new squabbles and rain. But all the differences are forgotten by the end, as "Caballo shares coats with both Perro and Gato/ and Cerdo trades his coat for Vaca's silbato," so that "cozy and dry under wings and abrigos/ they're eight drip-dry friends. / That's ocho amigos." With a formula that shows no signs of wearing thin, this third episode again provides both a bridge between languages, and a lively take on conflict resolution. Bueno! (Picture book, 6-8) |
