The sixth graders I teach absolutely love this book! It deals realistically with issues that ring true to their lives, such as friendships complicated by occasional jealousy and disagreement, having a crush, the kid who harasses you in the lunch line, and the teacher who can't pronounce your name, . The story takes a highly dramatic twist as Leticia and Rosario, the two main characters end up in an adventure they come out of through their own courage and resolve. Very funny in some places. Definitely also serious: In the end it deals delicately with death and cancer. Latino/a students may especially appreciate being able to see parts of their lives reflected in this story. It is certainly appropriate for students of any background. On the easy side for 6th graders. Would also be appropriate for slightly younger grades.

I think Rainbow Colored Horeses is a great book because it's exciting. The main character was Pio and his brothers and also the Rainbow Colored Horse. The book was exciting but it was boring sometimes. We think that the ending was happy. This book is like Cinderella.

Firefly Summer is a beautifully told story that will enchant readers ages 9 - 11. Teresa is a wonderful character who is excited about life and its possibilities. In every situation, she looks for the intrigue and ways she can be involved to make a positive impact on the lives of those around her. The book reminded me of the stories written for the American Girl dolls, where adventure and virtue are both important. Teresa would be a wonderful character to have made into a doll because of the positive model she would be to young girls. I found the Puerto Rican flavor of the book to be more of a seasoning than a main ingredient which made the book relateable as well as interesting. I hope that this attempt to revive the literature of Puerto Rico will be successful.

Hay dos ediciones de este libro en castellano y ninguna ha sido editada correctamente. En ambas, aparece la frase: "Su madre, quien era una vaca". Los animales no pueden recibir el tratamiento de "quien". Frases como: flotaban las banderas, en simple quietud, exactamente el único, en fin vino el toro, no son correctas en castellano. El verbo topetar está mal conjugado. Debería decirse Él topetea y no Él topeta. En el libro ISBN 0-14-054253-1 hay palabras mal partidas, como Bander-illeros. li-stones, par-alizado, etc. Al libro ISBN 0-590-44701-7 le faltan tildes en la portada, en las palabras traducción e inglés. (Por lo menos esta última versión cambió las palabras en las ilustraciones y las puso en castellano)

I highly recommend this book in any language! Ferdinand the Bull is a wonderful story with comical illustrations. The translated version that I have in castellano is well done. I use the story with my ninth grade Spanish classes mostly to demonstrate the use of the Imperfect and Preterite tenses. The book gives some excellent examples and is jampacked with vocabulary and cultural information. There is only one missing accent mark in the version I own and some "leismo"(common in Spain)which is the use of the indirect object pronoun "le" in place of a direct object pronoun.

I used this book, en español, in my first grade class room that I volunteer in, with the bilingual and spanish speaking children. It was the first time that they had books read to them in their native language in school, the first time they had their native tongue recognized as an academic thing, and it helped to build their self esteem in learning to read and write spanish. I also have a friend who owns this book in Norwegan... I highly recommend it, in any language.