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New West Book Review

Spanish-English Kids Books from Cinco Puntos Press

By Jenny Shank, 11-16-09

Thanks to television shows such as Dora the Explorer, Maya and Miguel, and the trusty Sesame Street, many kids growing up in English-speaking homes can count to ten and say hello in Spanish. Cinco Puntos Press, based in El Paso, specializes in literature that straddles the U.S./Mexico border, and publishes a number of bilingual books for children that will help kids who are interested in Spanish take their language study further.

El Paso-based writer Benjamin Alire Sáenz‘s The Dog Who Loved Tortillas (36 pages, $17.95), with vibrant clay illustrations by Geronimo Garcia, will be a hit with any kid who has ever begged his parents for a dog.  In this story, told in Spanish and English with a clay squiggle dividing the two texts on the same page, Little Diego Domínguez (who previously appeared in A Gift from Papá Diego) and his big sister Gabriela simultaneously hit upon the idea that they should get a dog.  When they ask their parents for a dog a piece, the parents say they can have a dog, but only if they share. (As a mom, I was sort of rooting for the parents to demand more from Diego and Gabriela: fifty whine-free days and nights, cleaning, scullery work.)

Gabriela and Diego agree, secretly thinking, “But it will be more mine.” They adopt a puppy from the humane society, and work hard housebreaking him.  Diego discovers that the puppy, Sofie, will perform tasks in exchange for bites of tortilla.  Sofie becomes well known around the neighborhood as the tortilla-loving dog.  But one morning Diego discovers Sofie “barely moving,” and Mr. Domínguez says, “Her nose is dry and hot.  It’s supposed to be cold and wet.” A trip to the vet is on order.  Uh oh, I thought, maybe dogs aren’t supposed to eat tortillas? 

But the tortillas turn out not to be to blame for this mysterious ailment.  Sáenz amps the suspense of the puppy’s illness as far as a young child will want it to go.  When I first read this book to my daughter, I thought, he’s not going to kill off the dog just a few pages after the kids adopted him, is he?  He should save that for later in the series, A Very Special Little Diego Book.  Thankfully, Sofie snaps back, with lots of care by her very responsible young owners.  The clay illustrations are full of life, bringing out the personality of this much-loved pet.

Two other vividly illustrated bilingual books published by Cinco Puntos Press are Cynthia Weill‘s Opuestos: Mexican Folk Art Opposites in English and Spanish (with sculptures by Quirino and Mártin Santiago, $14.95) and ABeCedarios: Mexican Folk Art ABCs in English and Spanish (with K.B. Basseches, sculptures by Moisés and Armando Jiménez, $14.95).  Kids will love the supersaturated colors and lively personalities of the animals in these books, created by traditional woodcarvers in Oaxaca, Mexico. 

I especially enjoyed the bright yellow leopard with wide orange eyes and toothy growling mouth to illustrate “Open – Abiertos” next to the closed-eyed, closed-mouth leopard for “Closed – Cerrados” in Opuestos, and the magenta-hooved Buffalo in AbeCedarios, who looks like he’s been taking lessons in flashiness from a toro.  Also fun is the mystery “X” animal, with the body of a dog, feet of a lizard, tail and tongue of a snake and wings of a bat, with the text, “This is an undiscovered animal.  Can you give it a name starting with the letter X?”

When teaching kids any language, it’s a wise idea to start with the words that will interest them most—try it, see how much quicker your kids can memorize the Spanish word for ice cream (helado) than the Spanish word for homework (tarea).  The animal words and stories in these three books by Cinco Puntos Press are a good place to begin.

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