Description in Spanish:La brujita Fua es tan buena como chiquita y siempre ayuda a todo aquel que la necesite. Se alegra cuando los niños se portan bien y baila y ríe cuando los ve contentos. Es una brujita que cree en la acción y que se pinta de tantos colores como buenos sentimientos tiene en su corazón.
Caribbean
El Mejor Es Mi Papa/ My Dad Is The Best (Gongoli) (Spanish Edition)
Puerto Rico’s best-selling author offers us this warm and loving tale about relationships between father and child. In a kingdom far, far away, a time and place has been set to choose the best father of all. In verses, each one of the animals, from a chick to a firefly, from a frog to a penguin, tells why their candidate is the best one. Find out the reasons why everyone’s father is the best in the world.
Raining Sardines
Wealthy landowner Don Rigol practically owns the town. To expand his coffee plantation, he will lay waste the mountain jungle and the secret valley where the ancient breed of Paso Fino horses roams wild. Best friends Enriquito and Ernestina search for a way to save the ponies, ensure justice at a trumped-up trial, and reclaim the mountain for their people. Magical realism
The Secret Footprints
The Dominican legend of the ciguapas, creatures who lived in underwater caves and whose feet were on backward so that humans couldn’t follow their footprints, is reinvented by Julia Alvarez. Although the ciguapas fear humans, Guapa, a bold and brave ciguapa, can’t help but be curious–especially about a boy she sees on the nights when she goes on the land to hunt for food. When she gets too close to his family and is discovered, she learns that some humans are kind. Even though she escapes unharmed and promises never to get too close to a human again, Guapa still sneaks over to the boy’s house some evenings, where she finds a warm pastelito in the pocket of his jacket on the clothesline.
El circo
Description in Spanish: Alicia siempre ha querido ser trapecista y su sueno se hace realidad cuando el circo llega a su pueblo. Entre mil colores, payasos, acrobtas, moniytos, caballos, y elefantes, Alicia logra lo que se propone.
Sergio and the Hurricane
In Puerto Rico, a little boy and his village experience the drama and destruction of a hurricane Sergio lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan is usually sunny and peaceful, but one day the sky grows dark and the ocean gets choppy. A hurricane is coming, and Sergio and his family must prepare for the storm. Through the experiences of one little boy, readers will learn about hurricanes and the damage they can do.
The Firefly Letters
A stunning novel in verse by a Newbery Honor-winning author paints a portrait of early women’s right pioneer Frederika Bremer and the journey to Cuba that transformed her life.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 1
Don Vespertilio, el murciélago
Description in Spanish: Don Vespertilio es un murciélago que vivió hace muchos anos. Sin embargo, nos dejo sus memorias, en las que relata parte importante de la historia de Puerto rico desde un punto de vista muy particular. Aprenderás más sobre la vida de los murciélagos y del área del carso en este libro que une el cuento con la información y que te invita a explorar el mundo de la fantasía y de la naturaleza que nos rodea.
Vejigante Masquerader
Determined to look his best for the upcoming celebration, a young Puerto Rican boy makes a special costume so that he can be a vejigante, or masquerader, in a book that includes a Spanish-English glossary, chants, and instructions for making a vejigante mask.
Under The Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba
In this companion volume to Alma Flor Ada’s Where the Flame Trees Bloom, the author offers young readers another inspiring collection of stories and reminiscences drawn from her childhood on the island of Cuba. Through those stories we see how the many events and relationships she enjoyed helped shape who she is today. We learn of a deep friendship with a beloved dance teacher that helped sustain young Alma Flor through a miserable year in school. We meet relatives, like her mysterious Uncle Manolo, whose secret, she later learns, is that he dedicated his life to healing lepers. We share the tragedy of another uncle whose spirited personality leads to his love of flying…and the crash that takes his life. Heartwarming, poignant, and often humorous, this collection encourages children to discover the stories in their our own lives — stories that can help inform their own values and celebrate the joys and struggles we all share no matter where or when we grew up.
Join the discussion of Under the Royal Palms as well as other books by Alma Flor Ada in Margarita Engle on our My Take/Your Take page.