Rooster / Gallo

All ages of beginner Spanish students like this book. I teach this very dense but short and easy poetic book to beginner ELLs. They enjoy being a rooster, the sun, the night, the stars as they say their line and walk across the stage. It is a must have for Spanish-English bilingual programs.

We checked this out from our local library and had to buy it based on the reaction of our 19-month-old daughter who adores this book. Gallo is a very simple, fun, unique, beautifully illustrated poem, which is easy to memorize in both languages even with my high school-level Spanish. This is fabulous for our family as my daughter is truly bilingual thanks to our nanny while I am trying to keep up with her Spanish The poem is an imaginative story that toddlers can enjoy, while adults can appreciate the unique imagery. Our daughter giggles out loud when the "sun opens it hands" or the "rooster eats the stars"). Even at this age she understands something is silly about that. I think those poetic images help her conceptual ability and creativity. My daughter and I have a whole hand signal routine (a la "wheels on the bus" or "itsy bitsy spider") to go with the story that she cannot get enough of - in fact, she asks for me to recite the poem in the car, at bedtime, in the grocery store, anywhere. Truly a fun book that can provides hours of entertainment.