Just In Case

This book is a Pura Belpre Honor Book

Personal Reaction: This brightly illustrated book is actually a Spanish alphabet book. I loved it and read it to my own children. My kids are teenagers, one of them taking Spanish in high school. She had fun correcting me on the Spanish words. Told in English, the story begins with Senor Calavera setting off on his bike for Grandma Beetle's party.  He is approached by Zelmiro the Ghost who questions him about what gift he will be bringing to the party. This is where the fun begins. Senor Calavera collects gifts for each letter of the Spanish alphabet. However, every few letters (gifts) he is interrupted by the ghost. The words have a great deal of rhythm to them. There are many repeated phrases that if read aloud to a class the students would soon be speaking along with the cadence of the words. This would be a great book for ELA students. I think it would be a great introduction in a beginning Spanish class as well. I really enjoyed the illustrations and the use of skeletons and ghosts seems culturally appropriate. When I was at the library with my enormous stack of books, I leaned down to pull this one off the shelf. There happened to be a little guy, probably six years old, and when I put this book on top of my stack he reached for it. Well, battle was on! I quickly scooped the stack up and went on to search for other books. This little guy became somewhat of a stalker. The  cover was so colorful, he really wanted MY book. Yes, I resorted to some immature tactics to get my book home, but hey, a librarian does what she has to.

Morales, Y. (2008). Just in case: a trickster tale and Spanish alphabet book. New York: Roaring Book Press.