Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection

What a better way to capture the full attention of your Hispanic students during a read aloud? This book is full of amazing stories that build on their background knowledge and can be used to further teach comprehension strategies or simply have them enjoy and connect to read alouds.

Colorful illustrations light up these old multicultural stories, many from Spain which was influenced by sailors bringing songs and stories from other lands, as explained in the wonderful introduction to this book that tells how geography and history mix together to produce culture. Enjoy the bits of Spanish language thrown in to fun stories like "Martina and Raton Perez" and the war between a beetle and Dona Vaca Blanca y Negra (the black and white cow). Each story is followed by a short explanation of its origin. A fine choice for elementary school libraries.

"Tales Our Abuelitas Told / Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas" by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, $19.95 hardcover) has been released in separate English and Spanish editions. The authors tell us that the stories included in this anthology of Hispanic folk tales not only have Spanish roots but also possess elements that can be traced to other people because Spain has been a "cultural crossroads throughout history." Thus, we are told that there are influences from the Phoenicians, Jews, Greeks, Basques, Celts and others. At the end of each tale, the authors give a little historical context. The stories themselves are entertaining and, at times, offer lessons on how we should treat others and conduct ourselves in this thing we call life. [This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]