Fire! ¡Fuego! Brave Bomberos
Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Dan Santat (Beekle)
ISBN: 9781599904610
A crew of firefighters - er - bomberos - put out a fire and save a kitty cat, in English and Spanish.
This one is less poppy than Bebe Goes Shopping or Little Roja Riding Hood, but the subject matter (and frankly, Santat's amazing scenes and facial expressions) more than covers the lack of snap.
I could tell that a few of the rhymes and constructions were a little labored, but overall the quality of the storytelling is lovely, and the words are a good mix between cognates (capitan, compadres), basic vocabulary most people pick up by casual contact (casa, hasta luego) and more peculiar or specific words that might be unfamiliar to non-speakers (afuera, humo). Our crew of five (white, brown, black, and one woman) battles the fire valiantly, saves the kitty (there is always a kitty to be saved, I think it's an actual rule for these books) and heads back to the station for clean-up, dinner, and a final emergency at the end of the night. Our glossary is at the end this time, and I don't know which I prefer - but I'm very glad that she always includes one. I suppose I could guess, (and often my guesses are correct, which says more for the storytelling and careful construction of the sentences and situations than it does about me) but it is nice to have it there. One other thing I like is that the Spanish words and phrases are always in bold, so it's obvious they're coming up, and that they're different from the primary language of the story. That's less useful to me in a storytelling venue, but very helpful for teachers or parents beginning language studies with their kids.
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