In this fantasy fiction book Martina is a beautiful cockroach with many suitors, her abuela (grandmother) tells her to use the coffee test. The coffee test is where you spill coffee on your suitors shoes and then you know how he'll handle anger. Martina tries this on many suitors and they all fail. Finally she tries it on a mouse, and he passes winning Marina over as his bride. ( )

Beautifully illustrated with color and detail of the characters. The illustrations really steal the story. It is a cute but also wise tale. ( )

This is a Cuban Folktale that is based on conflict and resolution by explaining how the Cubans decide whether their suitor is the right match for them.

In this humorous retelling of a Cuban folktale, a cockroach interviews her suitors in order to decide whom to marry.

Genre: Folktales/Fairytales
This is a folktale because it deals with some sort of good and evil, or love and hate. Martina the cockroach has to choose a husband, but her grandmother gives her moral advice. As readers we can see the benefit of this Coffee Test, although in the beginning one might not know it right away. The climax of the story ends in the conclusion, with Martina finally finding her true love, the mouse. This is also a folktale because it is taken from the Cuban culture, and it deals with Cuban customs and heritage (at the end of the book, both Martina and the mouse each have Cuban grandmothers that have told them about the Coffee Test). This book has vivid imagination and it leaves the reader amused with the pursuit of Martina by different suitors. We know as readers which suitor Martina should choose and which ones are not suited for her.

Media:
The media used in this book looks like acrylic paints because of the thickness and layering in the book. I would also say that pen and perhaps watercolor was used because of the way in which some colors are more transparent than others. The illustrations are very detailed and even though the story is about a cockroach, the way in which the shading and colors are used, we can see that Martina really is a beautiful cockroach. The illustrations also do justice to the villains in the book, the suitors that get angry easily. I might also venture to say that some pastels were used. The illustrator really had a fun time with this book, and I would really say that since the illustrations take up the entire pages of the book, that they are the main way in which the story is being told. ( )