Alma Flor Ada

How Happy I Would Be
Me gustaría tener

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Surprise-filled illus­tra­tions awaken children’s imag­i­na­tion and inspire their cre­ativ­ity as they encounter these unex­pected rhyming scenes. Viví Escrivá’s illus­tra­tions are superb.

CD AND CASSETTE DESCRIPTION

Facil­i­tat­ing that chil­dren lis­ten to recorded books as recorded by the author has a spe­cial value. When they hear it in the author’s voice they can know just how the author wished to con­vey feel­ings and emo­tions, empha­sis and sus­pense. When the text is put to music it acquires addi­tional interest.

The spe­cial nature of each of the five books in the series Sto­ries for the Telling or Libros para con­tar led to very dif­fer­ent and excit­ing record­ings. Suni Paz has cre­ated orig­i­nal music for the Span­ish ver­sion of this cumu­la­tive book of rhyming words. Her whim­si­cal ren­di­tion will charm all lis­ten­ers. The Eng­lish ver­sion has been pro­fes­sion­ally read to achieve the same level of engagement.

These extra­or­di­nary record­ings have been pro­duced in indi­vid­ual cas­settes in Eng­lish and Span­ish. There is also a CD with Eng­lish and Span­ish ver­sions. Each of the CDs con­tains the five books of the series.

CD (Sto­ries For The Telling) includes Friends, How Happy I Would Be, The Song of the Teeny-Tiny Mos­quito, Strange Vis­i­tors, Who’s Hatch­ing Here?

AUTHOR’S NOTE

To play with rhyme and to imag­ine unique sit­u­a­tions give me joy, a joy I sus­pect many chil­dren share. Teach­ers have told me many times how much their stu­dents enjoy this book and how it moti­vates them to make their own books fol­low­ing the pat­tern. And in the book­shelf I have ded­i­cated to col­lect­ing the books made by chil­dren and given to me as gifts, there are quite a few inspired by this book.

REVIEWS

School Library Journal

About Sto­ries for the Telling: A charm­ing series, illus­trated with water­color and pen-and-ink draw­ings. The sto­ries are told in a humor­ous style and are enhanced through­out by Ada’s gift for lan­guage and poetry. El Canto del mos­quito / The Song of the Teeny Tiny Mos­quito is the droll story of a frog who eats a mos­quito and whose song then sounds like that of a mos­quito. The frog is eaten by a fish, who then sings like a mos­quito, etc. Una extraña vista / Strange Vis­i­tors is a humor­ous count­ing story of the days of the week in rhyme. Me gus­taría tener… / How Happy I Would Be… lists the var­i­ous things “I would like to have…” Again in a counting-book for­mat, the desired items all turn out to be ani­mals involved in unusual activ­i­ties (e.g. two giraffes read­ing with glasses). ¿Quién nac­erá aquí? / Who’s hatch­ing Here?, in con­trast to the oth­ers, is a sci­ence book. Rhyming rid­dles ask which ani­mal will hatch from dif­fer­ent eggs. The eggs are pre­sented in their nat­ural habi­tats; both illus­tra­tions and text hint at the answers.

READERS’ RESPONSES

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