Alma Flor Ada

A New Job for Pérez, the Mouse
Ratoncito Pérez, Cartero

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The pro­tag­o­nist of A New Job for Pérez, the Mouse or Ratoncito Pérez, cartero is a beloved char­ac­ter in the folk­lore of many Spanish-speaking coun­tries. He is both known as Cucara­chita Martina’s hus­band and as the equiv­a­lent of the tooth fairy.

In this story he is suf­fer­ing because most chil­dren in the neigh­bor­hood have already lost their baby teeth. He is happy to find a new job, as a mail­man, until his good friend Pig Three declares that mail­men are use­less now that all cor­re­spon­dence hap­pens through email.

But there is a sur­prise wait­ing for Pig Three that will vin­di­cate Pérez’s job. And through­out the story read­ers get to see some of the diverse and fan­tas­tic mail that Pérez has delivered.

ON THE LANGUAGE BOOKS OF GATEWAYS TO THE SUN SERIES

The four books in the Lan­guage series of Gate­ways to the Sun or Puer­tas al Sol are frac­tured fairy-tales which will help to develop children’s lan­guage in very spe­cific areas:

By pre­dict­ing who are the char­ac­ters, and then read­ing their first per­son descrip­tions in: One, Two, Three. Who Can It Be? or Uno, dos, tres. ¡Dime, quién es chil­dren will become acquainted with per­sonal descrip­tions and famil­iar­ize with lan­guage that will help them talk about themselves.

A New Home for the Seven Lit­tle Kids or El nuevo hogar de los siete cabri­tos shows all the ele­ments of a house. Chil­dren will be able to under­stand a plan for the rooms of a house and will find the vocab­u­lary related to fur­ni­ture and appliances.

In Happy Birth­day, Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood or ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Cape­rucita Roja! chil­dren will fol­low Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood and her mother as they plan a birth­day party. Cre­at­ing the list of guests, writ­ing the invi­ta­tions, look­ing for addresses in an address book, writ­ing the envelopes, mak­ing a shop­ping list, and fol­low­ing some sim­ple recipes all will con­tribute to see the many ways in which lan­guage is present in daily life.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Rein­tro­duc­ing well loved char­ac­ters from fairy tales has always been an enjoy­able form to cre­ate a book. After the suc­cess of the Hid­den For­est series, Dear Peter Rab­bit or Querido Pedrín, Yours truly, Goldilocks or Aten­ta­mente, Ric­i­tos de Oro, With Love, Lit­tle Red Hen and the recent Extra! Extra! Fairy Tales News from Hid­den For­est or ¡Extra! ¡Extra! Noti­cias del Bosque Escon­dido to con­tinue to play with fairy tales char­ac­ters seemed just a nat­ural thing to do.

CONNECTIONS

Besides the con­nec­tions between the four books of this series of Gate­ways to the Sun, there are mul­ti­ple con­nec­tions to these char­ac­ters in other titles.

The com­plete tra­di­tional tale of Ratoncito Pérez or Pérez the Mouse can be found as “Mar­tina Martínez and Pérez, the Mouse” or “Mar­tina Martínez y el ratoncito Pérez” in Tales Our Abueli­tas Told or Cuen­tos que con­ta­ban nues­tras abue­las.

A delight­ful song La Cucara­chita Mar­tina offers a brief ver­sion of the encounter between Mar­tina and Pérez. It can be found in “Sigue la música,” num­ber 7 of the col­lec­tion Música amiga.

A dif­fer­ent take on the story is pre­sented in the great-granddaughter of Cucara­chita Mar­tina o La tatarani­eta de Cucara­chita Mar­tina which brings the story to present times.

READERS’ RESPONSES

If you have enjoyed read­ing or shar­ing this book, I would very much like to hear from you. Please click here to send your comments.