Product Description

Twelve witches reward Carlos for adding to their song about the days of the week, but when Carlos' greedy cousin Ricardo sings for the witches, he receives an unpleasant surprise. Introduces the Spanish words for numbers and the days of the week.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2868602 in Books
• Published on: 1990-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Library Binding
• 40 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-- This retelling of a Costa Rican folktale has a familiar theme of goodness rewarded and greediness punished. Carlos is poor and kind; his cousin Ricardo is rich and selfish. One night Carlos becomes lost in the forest and discovers a roomful of witches singing about the days of the week. The rhyme is contagious, so he completes it for them; they are so delighted that they reward him with gold and remove a mole from his nose. Back home, Carlos is confronted by Ricardo, who demands to be taken to the witches' house. But his non-rhyming addition to their song goes unrewarded; he returns home with nothing but two moles on his nose. The writing is lively and successfully creates tension and suspense. The witches' song appears in Spanish in the text, possibly because in translation it loses its rhythm and rhyme. It's unfortunate that the glossary is at the end; readers need to understand the song in order to comprehend the story. The illustrations are done in a primitive folk style using flat color and have a strong regional flavor appropriate to the text. Unfortunately, they are neither attractive nor inviting, and the faces sometimes have awkward expressions. This would be useful where there is a need for Hispanic folklore; otherwise, it's strictly additional. --Jane Gardner Connor, formerly at South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A CostaRican folktales
I would love to read this book in class so I would enjoy singing the "Dias de la semana" in Spanish to my students. It is very interesting, how there are authors that even though they are not Latinos or from Latino descendant, are interested in folktales around the world. I also like the lesson shown at the end of the story.