Luz Orihuela

Appealing and quirky illustrations, with excellent bilingual text, November 4, 2011

All too often, ONE of the languages in a so-called bilingual edition is regrettably less-than-acceptable, so I checked that first when I saw this book, and was pleased to see that it is flawless in both Spanish and English. I didn't actually expect any less from Scholastic, but nor did I expect such wonderful, whimsical illustrations -- each page has a lot of movement, and a really sophisticated visual show more vocabulary. I've now bought six copies for gifts, and have recommended the title to everyone from parents and grandparents to ESL or beginning-Spanish learners, to graduate translation students. show less

Little Roja Riding Hood is a Spanish twist to the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood. While the overall plot is the same as the original, there has been adjustments to some of the scenes in order to incorporate Spanish vocabulary into the story. I like this book because it has Spanish vocabulary that actually rhyme with each other. Children and ELL's can use context clues via the illustrations and the transition between languages to figure out the meaning of the text. A good activity to show more go along with this story could be letting children write the words that appeared in Spanish on index carts and draw what the word means. show less

Summary

Little Red Riding Hood tells the story of a little girl who always wore a red hood. She was sent by her mother to bring honey for her sick grandmother. On her way she met a wolf who asked her destination. He then took a shortcut and arrived at her grandmother's house before her. He hid her grandmother in a closet, jumped in her bed, and pretended to be her. His plan was to eat the little girl, Red Riding Hood. Luckily there were hunters outside who heard her screams when the wolf show more attacked her. They rushed in and rescued Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

Critique

This book was written in both English and Spanish. It is a great book to use to fully integrate English Language Learners in the story as they would be able to read and comprehend the whole story in Spanish. It is also a good book to use to enforce rules to children, like not giving information to people you don't know.

Prompts
1. p.8 - Was it a good idea for Little Red Riding Hood to follow the wolf's directions? Why or why not?
p.12 Why do you think the wolf pretended to be Red Riding Hood's Grandmother?

Craft Element

The writer used lots of exclamation marks when Red Riding Hood spoke the wolf who was pretending to be her grandmother. They set the tone of the dialogue between her and the wolf and help us to know how Red Riding Hood felt about how different her grandmother looked. She was frightened at what she saw. This can show how adding exclamation marks to speech changes the tone. show less

This book is told just like every other Princess and the Pea book. The illustrations are very different but cute.

I love this story. It is so silly and I know the kids will love it. I loved the illustrations. They are a bit different than what I am used to, but they are cute!

I would use this story to help with a Spanish lesson. This book has both the Spanish and English written on each page.