New Arrivals: Bilingual Picture Book: Fire! ¡Fuego! Brave Bomberos, by Susan Middleton Elya & Dan Santat

Another bilingual one, and this one's a firefighting book and I LOVE IT!

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.

New Arrivals: Bilingual Picture Book: Little Roja Riding Hood, Susan Middleton Elya & Susan Guevara

Little Roja Riding Hood
Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Susan Guevara
ISBN: 9780399247675
A modern Red sets off to bring Abuelita some hot soup, but a wolf barges in and gets more than he bargained for.

Very similar to her previous Bebe Goes Shopping, with Steven Salerno, which I have used before, a long while back.  A bibliography at the beginning gives us all the Spanish terms we need, and thereafter, they're sprinkled through the story with no translation given (nor really needed).  Roja heads for Abue with some hot soup, but is distracted by the wolf and the colorful flowers.  While she dawdles, he nicks her cloak, books it to Granny, and the traditional exchange is swapped - this time it's sharp Granny (holding a Jesu statue that is giving Lupe some serious side-eye) who is questioning the false "Roja" who is growing ever nearer.  Abue's stalling works, Red barges in and douses the wolf with Checkov's hot soup, and the two of them pop online to find the old bird a security system to prevent further incursions.  Fun, funny, and sprightly, with poppy rhymes and enough of a difference to be cute without becoming precious.

It is a teensy bit on the long side for a storytime, but it would be great for an event or a Summer Reading Program for the slightly older ones.  I might be able to shoehorn it into this summer as a "hero" book, in fact.