Keith Polette

What a delightful and charming book. Paco and the Giant Chile Plant bases itself on the children's classic Jack and the Beanstalk, but with a wonderful twist that makes it all it's own. Paco trades the family cow for a bag of Chile seeds. Once he plants them, he waits and waits until finally the ground begins to shake and tremble, a giant chile plant shoots itself into the sky and a curious Paco quickly makes his way to the top. Once he reaches the top, he encounters a terrible Giant - this show more is where the delightful twist takes place, which is sure to enchant readers of all ages.

Within Paco and the Giant Chile Plant, the bilingual version, Spanish words are embedded throughout the story. Their definitions made clear within the text and a list of the words and their meanings are also included on the final page of the story. I found this to be a wonderful story and the illustrations are beautiful and extremely eye catching. Both my 2 year old and 6 year old enjoyed this story repeatedly.

I wanted to include an excerpt, which I found to be particular catchy: El gigante's teeth were as jagged and gnarled as trees twisted by a terrible tornado. I loved the language usage and the flow of writing. Wonderful and fun story with a lesson at the end that as long as you have a wonderful family, a roof over your head and work to be done, that is all that is important. show less

I absolutely love this book. Love love love. It did a great job of incorporating enough basic Spanish into the English and repeating it often enough for retention without incorporating so much that the child is overwhelmed or the parent has trouble pronouncing. I enjoyed the twist on the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale and how it was incorporated. The only thing I didn't quite like was the idea that a magic bag would fix all one's problems, but eh--it's a fairy tale.

My daughter also loves show more this book and has asked me to read it to her several times. The illustrations are colorful and look great, and they capture her interest. show less

Paco and the Giant Chile plant is a variation of the children's classic, "Jack and the Bean stalk". This beautifully illustrated bilingual children's book from Raven Tree Press is presented in their "Embedded Text Format", meaning that the story is told primarily in English with a sprinkling of Spanish words. This is a very effective method if your children are reluctant to learn another language or are just beginning to speak another language. The vocabulary words are in the back with the show more spanish/english translation. Its a great way to review word meaning/translation with your child. I was just completely impressed with the quality of the illustrations, story and printing. I highly recommmend this book to anyone looking to cultivate bilingualism in their children. I look forward to reading more from this publisher. show less

I'm torn by this book. On the plus side, the illustrations are charming, the material is timeless, and the bilingual dialog is prepared with a light touch. On the other hand, this "Jack" climbs his beanstalk, finds the ogre, turns him back into his father, and takes him home...not really sure what message the authors have in mind. Do fathers grow on trees, live in clouds, need to be re-humanized? I don,t get it.