Alma Flor Ada

Abecedario de los animales
Abecedario de los animales

AVAILABLE IN BIG BOOK FORMAT

BOOK DESCRIPTION

This book offers two poems in Span­ish for each let­ter of the alpha­bet. One poem cen­ters on the fea­tured ani­mal, while the other focuses on the let­ter itself, play­fully explor­ing asso­ci­ated sounds and shapes and mean­ing­ful words. Teach­ers and chil­dren have delighted in this book which has become one of Alma Flor’s clas­sics, with numer­ous reprints both in hard­cover and paper­back. Viví Escrivá’s whim­si­cal illus­tra­tions con­tribute to make this book a favorite wel­com­ing present for a new born child, a spe­cial birth­day present or sim­ply a book that belongs in the library of every child who speaks, or is learn­ing to speak, Spanish.

CD AND CASSETTE DESCRIPTION

The Abecedario CD or cas­sette is a won­der­ful com­ple­ment to the book, facil­i­tat­ing children’s reten­tion of the poems. Draw­ing on her broad knowl­edge of the His­panic musi­cal tra­di­tion, Suni Paz has turned each of the alpha­bet poems into a delight­ful song. The songs encom­pass a wide range of Latin Amer­i­can and Span­ish rhythms, and pro­vide an out­stand­ing intro­duc­tion to Latino children’s vast musi­cal her­itage. The tape also includes an orig­i­nal ABC song, a gift from Alma Flor and Suni to chil­dren and teachers.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The ABC has always held great appeal for me. I love that it is such a won­der­ful tool for orga­niz­ing things. I am a lover and col­lec­tor of ABC books, so it is not a sur­prise that I have writ­ten a few.

This par­tic­u­lar ABC was born out of my desire to do some­thing spe­cial for a spe­cial child, Emilio, the son of Kuki Miller and Daniel Divin­ski, two won­der­ful Argen­tin­ian friends. Emilio was vis­it­ing San Fran­cisco for the first time, and I had been look­ing for­ward meet­ing this child, but fell vic­tim to the most vicious flu. It was frus­trat­ing to be in bed and not able to meet the child and take him and his mother to see the city. To try to give him some­thing spe­cial as a mem­ory of his trip, I began cre­at­ing poems about the let­ters and shar­ing them with him on the phone. This was the inspi­ra­tion for the book.

At a dif­fer­ent level this book is also very impor­tant to me because of the pro­fes­sional asso­ci­a­tion with three women who have been very impor­tant in my career as an author. First, some­one I hold in great esteem, Feli­ci­dad Orquín. A spe­cial­ist in Children’s Lit­er­a­ture, and a remark­able author, Feli­ci­dad was at the time the Direc­tor of the Children’s Lit­er­a­ture Sec­tion of Espasa-Calpe in Madrid, and offered me a con­tract to pub­lish this book. Since then we have become friends, but this book was out first con­tact. The book is the prod­uct of her vision in select­ing Viví as the illus­tra­tor and estab­lish­ing the para­me­ters for the book design. The col­lab­o­ra­tion with Viví on the cre­ation of the book has been the begin­ning of a long career of pub­lish­ing books together. Suni Paz had already cre­ated music for some of my poems, but this was the first time we pro­duced inde­pen­dently first a cas­sette, later a CD. Suni’s musi­cal cre­ations for my poems have been extra­or­di­nary joys in my life.

BOOK REVIEWS

Pub­lish­ers Weekly:

Young read­ers will enjoy learn­ing the alpha­bet as they asso­ciate the let­ters with the names of ani­mals. Large, col­or­ful illus­tra­tions and sim­ple, clever text make this a fun and edu­ca­tional tool.

School Library Journal:

A won­der­ful col­lec­tion of verses about the let­ters of the alpha­bet, includ­ing imag­i­na­tive descrip­tions of the let­ters and an intro­duc­tion to their sounds. The text is enhanced by beau­ti­ful water­color illustrations.

TEACHERS’ AND CHILDREN’S RESPONSES

My great love for this book derives, of course, of the extra­or­di­nary response it has had from teach­ers and chil­dren. It has been won­der­ful to visit schools and see how chil­dren knew the poems by heart, and could recite or sing them. Once in the out­stand­ing Author’s Fair of St. Helena’s Ele­men­tary School, in St. Helena, Cal­i­for­nia, the chil­dren per­formed the book on stage, hold­ing big signs with the let­ters and mov­ing to a won­der­ful chore­og­ra­phy. I also have ver­sions of the book made by chil­dren. Even more excit­ing is the fact that many chil­dren have been inspired to write their own ABC poems after read­ing this book. That is the great­est of all rewards!

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.