Alma Flor Ada

Let Me Help! /¡Quiero ayudar!

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Perico, the par­rot, learns to say “Let Me Help!” from lit­tle Mar­tita, who’s been say­ing that a lot lately. When the whole fam­ily scram­bles to pre­pare for Cinco de Mayo, Perico knows there must be some way he can help—even if he is just a parrot.

Perico tries to help make deli­cious tamales. He tries to help craft beau­ti­ful paper flow­ers for the barge his fam­ily will take down the San Anto­nio River. He tries to help the boys prac­tice their mari­achi num­ber on the porch. But at every turn Perico is shooed away, until he finally fig­ures out how he can add some­thing spe­cial to the Cinco de Mayo fun.

This is the story of every young reader who has been told he or she is too lit­tle or too young to help. Angela Domínguez’s vibrantly hued paint­ings glow with the rich col­ors of the south­west. Let Me Help! is a joy­ful read-aloud even the lit­tlest helpers can cel­e­brate year around.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The inspi­ra­tion for this book comes from sev­eral sources that one day com­bined to give birth to the story.

Par­rots were very com­mon pets on my home island of Cuba. My great grand­mother always had a par­rot perched on a large iron ring in her kitchen. I espe­cially remem­ber a cotorra which she called Cotita. When we moved to the city, the next door neigh­bors had a par­rot, a perico, which would fre­quently call my father’s name at the most unsus­pect­ing times. He would cry Modesto!!! in a voice that sounded so human it con­stantly fooled my father into believ­ing some one was call­ing him. Need­less to say he found that par­rot most annoying!

I have always loved the city of San Anto­nio from my very first visit, and have always rejoiced when con­fer­ences and in-services gave me the oppor­tu­nity to visit it.

This book is in a way a homage to San Anto­nio and to the state of Texas where I have always been most wel­come. I have done numer­ous pre­sen­ta­tions in Texas, I have taught sum­mer courses both at the Uni­ver­sity of St. Thomas in Hous­ton and at UT in El Paso, and while I have never resided in Texas I have spent many days of my life in the Lone Star state.

Finally, as a mother of four chil­dren and grand­mother of nine, I am very much aware of how impor­tant it is for lit­tle chil­dren to be given the oppor­tu­nity to help.

CONNECTIONS

Cel­e­bra­tions are part of every cul­ture. Fam­i­lies cel­e­brate birth­days and wed­dings, and soci­ety cel­e­brates his­tor­i­cal dates and accom­plished peo­ple. In recog­ni­tion of the impor­tance of cel­e­bra­tions, Isabel Cam­poy and I have writ­ten the twelve books of the series Sto­ries to Cel­e­brate or Cuen­tos para cel­e­brar.

Some fies­tas develop greater mean­ing over time. For exam­ple, Cinco de Mayo com­mem­o­rates the Bat­tle of Puebla, when on May 5, 1861, the Mex­i­can army defeated the French, who had invaded Mex­ico. Today, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo cel­e­brates the con­tri­bu­tions of all Lati­nos to life in our soci­ety. Sev­eral pieces of my work relate to Cinco de Mayo. One of them is the book Cel­e­brate Cinco de Mayo with a Mex­i­can Hat Dance or Cel­e­bra el Cinco de mayo con un Jarabe Tap­atío. This book, as all oth­ers in the Cel­e­brate Series is divided in two sec­tions: a fic­tional nar­ra­tive and a non-fiction expla­na­tion of the celebration.

The story uses the idea of the poem, “Jarabe tap­atío” included in Corre al Coro, num­ber 4 of the col­lec­tion Música amiga. The poem, has been turned into a song by Suni Paz, and appears in the CD of the same name. The Cinco de Mayo cel­e­bra­tion is also the set­ting for the book The Empty Piñata or La piñata vacía from the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round or Cuen­tos para todo el año.

Book Reviews

Críti­cas / School Library Journal

Gr 2–5: After escap­ing from his cage, Perico, a par­rot, sees his fam­ily prepar­ing for a Cinco de Mayo cel­e­bra­tion and wants to be part of the excite­ment. He vol­un­teers to help make tamales, recit­ing a line he learned from lit­tle Mar­tita: “Let me help! Let me help!” His offers are repeat­edly brushed away by fam­ily mem­bers as they make paper flow­ers and pan dulce and prac­tice their trum­pets. Dis­cour­aged, Perico fol­lows the family’s barge and watches as its top­most dec­o­ra­tion hits a bridge and falls into the San Anto­nio River. At that moment, he perches atop the barge and saves the day as only he can. The vibrant and fes­tive col­ors used through­out invite read­ers into the cel­e­bra­tion, and the images are true to the peo­ple they por­tray. The bilin­gual text is fluid in both Span­ish and Eng­lish, and the sub­ject is sure to spark inter­est in the hol­i­day. With this story, Ada reminds chil­dren that good inten­tions are the best help that any­one can offer.–Roberto Zap­ata, San Anto­nio Pub­lic Library, TX

Los blo­gu­i­tos / La bloga

Perico learns this phrase from lit­tle Mar­tita, who’s been say­ing it a lot lately. When the whole fam­ily scram­bles to pre­pare for Cinco de Mayo, Perico knows there must be some way he can help—even if he is just a parrot.

Perico tries to help make deli­cious tamales. He tries to help craft beau­ti­ful paper flow­ers for the barge his fam­ily will take down the San Anto­nio River. He tries to help the boys prac­tice their mari­achi num­ber on the porch. But at every turn Perico is shooed away, until he finally fig­ures out how he can add some­thing to the Cinco de Mayo fun.

Acclaimed author Alma Flor Ada’s tale is the story of every young reader who has been told he or she is too lit­tle or too young to help. Angela Domínguez’s vibrantly hued paint­ings glow with the rich col­ors of the south­west. Let Me Help! is a joy­ful read-aloud, yay!

Alma Flor Ada is an award-winning children’s book author, a gifted trans­la­tor, and one of the lead­ers in the field of bilin­gual edu­ca­tion in the United States. Born in Cuba, Alma Flor received her PhD at the Pon­tif­i­cal Catholic Uni­ver­sity of Lima, Perú, did her post-doctoral research at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity as a Fel­low of the Rad­cliffe Insti­tute, and is a Ful­bright Research Scholar. She was named Pro­fes­sor Emerita at the Uni­ver­sity of San Fran­cisco in 2004. She lives in North­ern California’s Marin County.

Angela Domínguez was born in Mex­ico City and raised in Texas. Grow­ing up, she loved to read and to draw. In 2007, she received her MFA in illus­tra­tion from the Acad­emy of Art in San Fran­cisco. When she is not draw­ing, she enjoys the out­doors and drink­ing cof­fee. She hopes that her illus­tra­tions make peo­ple of all ages smile. This is her first pic­ture book, and sec­ond children’s book. She lives in Fresno, California.

Look out for Let Me Help! in April. It’ll be out just in time to help you plan your Cinco de Mayo fes­tiv­i­ties. — http://labloga.blogspot.com/2010/01/quiero-ayudar-let-me-help.html

An INter­view with the Illustrator

READERS’ RESPONSES

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