Alma Flor Ada

Daniel’s Pet
Daniel y su mascota
Daniel’s Pet / Daniel y su mascota

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Daniel loves his new pet. But what will hap­pen when it hatches a sur­prise? In this com­pan­ion to Daniel’s Mys­tery Egg or El huevo mis­te­rioso de Daniel, Alma Flor Ada and G. Brian Karas team up for a heart­warm­ing story about Daniel and his newest ani­mal friend at an ini­tial read­ing level.

Sev­eral other books by Alma Flor Ada can be dis­cussed along side this book. Who’s Hatch­ing Here? or ¿Quién nac­erá aquí? offers the pos­si­bil­ity to talk about ani­mals born of eggs. A Rose with Wings or Rosa alada to talk about how inter­est­ing it is see­ing a new ani­mal come out of an egg. And The Kite or El papalote share the joy of hav­ing a pet.

G. Brian Karas has illus­trated dozens of pop­u­lar books, includ­ing Cinder-Elly and Sleep­less Beauty by Frances Minters, Sav­ing Sweet­ness and Rais­ing Sweet­ness by Diane Stan­ley, and the HiRise Pri­vate Eyes beginning-reader series by Cyn­thia Rylant. He lives in Rhine­back, New York. For this book he used pho­tos of Alma Flor’s grand­son Daniel to illus­trate the pro­tag­o­nist which Daniel inspired.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

What fun it has been to be able to make my dear­est grand­son Daniel a pro­tag­o­nist of two books.

When I wrote the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round or Cuen­tos para todo el año many of the sto­ries were inspired in my children’s child­hood. As Latino chil­dren grow­ing up in the United States some of their expe­ri­ences reflected that cir­cum­stance, many oth­ers were uni­ver­sal, and a few were sim­ply unique. Now, I have the bless­ing of being grand­mother to nine chil­dren of mixed her­itage, whose her­itage include that of their fathers, who are both Peru­vian and Cuban, and their moth­ers, of Euro­pean ances­try with gen­er­a­tions in the United Sates.
I enjoy mak­ing my grand­chil­dren the pro­tag­o­nists of my books.

Daniel’s Pet as well as Daniel’s Mys­tery Egg or El huevo mis­te­rioso de Daniel honor my kind and sen­si­tive grand­son Daniel. His sis­ter Cristina is the pro­tag­o­nist of Cristina and the Frog, or Cristina y la rana, and of Cel­e­brate Hal­loween and Day of the Dead with Cristina and Her Blue Bunny or Cel­e­bra Hal­loween y el Día de Muer­tos con Cristina y su cone­jito azul.

REVIEWS

Children’s Lit­er­a­ture

Those learn­ing to read often turn to books that explore their inter­ests. Keep­ing this in mind, Har­court last year launched a care­fully designed early-reader series called “Green Light Read­ers” with level one (ages 4 to 6) and level two (ages 5 to 7) books. Since many kids are intrigued by ani­mals, Daniel’s Pet heads the list. The book offers the sim­ple words, fun rhymes and rhythms and famil­iar sit­u­a­tions that can pro­vide impor­tant cues to those try­ing to mas­ter read­ing. Alma Flor Ada’s engag­ing story about a lit­tle boy acquir­ing and car­ing for his pet chick is well com­ple­mented by G. Brian Karas’ whim­si­cal illus­tra­tions. At the end, an art project and five play­ful ques­tions encour­age young read­ers to fur­ther reflect on the book, enhanc­ing under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment. 2003, Har­court, and Ages 4 to 6. (Children’s Lit­er­a­ture — Mary Quattlebaum )

READERS’ RESPONSES

“First grade stu­dents at Franklin Ele­men­tary School in Rah­way were recently vis­ited by ‘Cooper’ the hen. Stu­dents learned all about hens and how to care for a pet when they read the story, ‘Dan’s Pet’ by Alma Flor Ada…” Read more » [New Jer­sey today]

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