Alma Flor Ada

A Rose With Wings
Rosa alada

BOOK DESCRIPTION

All of the chil­dren in the class have cho­sen a spe­cial ani­mal for their project, but Miguel only has a cater­pil­lar… or does he? A poetic ren­di­tion of the mir­a­cle of transformation.

One of the beloved titles of the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round, or in Span­ish, Cuen­tos para todo el año. The com­plete sto­ries of the series are:

SPRING
A Rose with Wings
A Sur­prise for Mother Rab­bit
The Empty Piñata

PRIMAVERA
Rosa alada
La sor­presa de Mamá Coneja
La piñata vacía

SUMMER
How the Rain­bow Came to Be
After the Storm
In the Cow’s Backyard

VERANO
Cómo nació el arco iris
Después de la tor­menta
La hamaca de la vaca

FALL
The Kite
What Are Ghosts Afraid Of?
“Turkey for Thanks­giv­ing?” “No, Thanks!”

OTOÑO
El papalote
El susto de los fan­tas­mas
–¿Pavo para la Cena de Gra­cias? –No, gracias.

WINTER
The Golden Cage
I Don’t Want to Melt
It Wasn’t Me

INVIERNO
La jaula dorada
¡No quiero der­re­tirme!
No fui yo

CDS AND CASSETTES DESCRIPTION

Facil­i­tat­ing that chil­dren lis­ten to the sto­ries as recorded by the author has a spe­cial value. They can hear in the author’s voice just exactly how exactly the author wished to con­vey the sto­ries feel­ings and emo­tions, empha­sis and sus­pense. I par­tic­u­larly like to read aloud and to record my read­ings so, for me, it was par­tic­u­larly joy­ful to record these twelve sto­ries in Eng­lish and Spanish.

The sto­ries can be found in indi­vid­ual cas­settes in Eng­lish and Span­ish, one for each book of the series, or in CDs in Eng­lish and Span­ish ver­sions. Each of the CDs con­tains the twelve sto­ries of the series.

A Spe­cial Bonus

Because these sto­ries have been so beloved by chil­dren, I con­ceived the idea of given them an extra dimen­sion. I have rewrit­ten the 12 sto­ries in Span­ish in verse for­mat. And Suni Paz, with her incom­pa­ra­ble cre­ativ­ity, has put them to music. So the Span­ish cas­settes and CD con­tain not only the story as pub­lished in the book told by me, but also the story retold in verse form and sang by Suni.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The twelve books of this series are some of my best well known books among bilin­gual teach­ers and their stu­dents. They are also very dear to my heart since the inspi­ra­tion for most of them comes from my own children’s childhood.

I have always been fas­ci­nated by but­ter­flies but they became even more mean­ing­ful when we were liv­ing in Lima, Peru, and but­ter­flies would lay their eggs on a ñorbo vine out­side my studio’s win­dow. My chil­dren were fas­ci­nated to be able to wit­ness the whole process of the but­ter­fly lay­ing the eggs, the cater­pil­lar vora­ciously devour­ing the ñorbo leaves, hang­ing itself from a twig and cre­at­ing a cocoon resem­bling a dry leave, and finally see­ing the but­ter­fly come out of the cocoon, all rolled up until the sun dried its wings and it could fly.

So taken was she by the process that when she was five years old my daugh­ter Rosalma made a beau­ti­ful book, “How a cater­pil­lar becomes a but­ter­fly.” All of that has been suf­fi­cient inspi­ra­tion for this book.

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READERS’ RESPONSES

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