One, Two, Three… Who Can It Be?
Uno, dos, tres. ¡Dime quién es!
BOOK DESCRIPTION
With this predictable book children will delight in guessing the name of well loved characters: Little Red Riding Hood, Baby Bear, Ratoncito Pérez or Pérez de Mouse, the first Little Goat, the Big Bad Wolf, Mother Rabbit and the Three Little Pigs.
Each of the characters offers a brief first person description of himself, or herself, and later adds details which the children may not be familiar with, to enrich the description.
ON THE LANGUAGE BOOKS OF GATEWAYS TO THE SUN SERIES
The four books in the Language series of Gateways to the Sun or Puertas al Sol are fractured fairy-tales which will help to develop children’s language in very specific areas:
By predicting who are the characters, and then reading their first person descriptions in: One, Two, Three. Who Can It Be? or Uno, dos, tres. ¡Dime, quién es children will become acquainted with personal descriptions and familiarize with language that will help them talk about themselves.
A New Home for the Seven Little Kids or El nuevo hogar de los siete cabritos shows all the elements of a house. Children will be able to understand a plan for the rooms of a house and will find the vocabulary related to furniture and appliances.
In Happy Birthday, Little Red Riding Hood or ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Caperucita Roja! children will follow Little Red Riding Hood and her mother as they plan a birthday party. Creating the list of guests, writing the invitations, looking for addresses in an address book, writing the envelopes, making a shopping list, and following some simple recipes all will contribute to see the many ways in which language is present in daily life.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Reintroducing well loved characters from fairy tales has always been an enjoyable form to create a book. After the success of the Hidden Forest series, Dear Peter Rabbit or Querido Pedrín, Yours truly, Goldilocks or Atentamente, Ricitos de Oro, With Love, Little Red Hen and the recent Extra! Extra! Fairy Tales News from Hidden Forest or ¡Extra! ¡Extra! Noticias del Bosque Escondido to continue to play with fairy tales characters seemed just a natural thing to do.
CONNECTIONS
Besides the connections between the four books of this series of Gateways to the Sun, there are multiple connections to these characters in other titles. Little Red Riding Hood, Baby Bear, the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf are all present in the Hidden Forest Books Dear Peter Rabbit or Querido Pedrín, Yours truly, Goldilocks or Atentamente, Ricitos de Oro, With Love, Little Red Hen and the recent Extra! Extra! Fairy Tales News from Hidden Forest or ¡Extra! ¡Extra! Noticias del Bosque Escondido.
Spanish-speaking children would enjoy listening to Caperucita Roja’s story in the CD Cuéntame un cuento, where Suni Paz has created music for Alma Flor Ada’s recreation of the story in verse format.
Mother Rabbit or Mamá Coneja is the main character of the original story A Surprise for Mother Rabbit or La sorpresa de Mamá Coneja from the series Stories the Year ‘Round or Cuentos para todo el año.
The story of The Three Little Pigs or Los tres cerditos has been also retold in verse format and put to music by Suni Paz. It can be read in the book Cuéntame un cuento or listened to in the CD by the same name.
The complete traditional tale of Ratoncito Pérez or Pérez the Mouse can be found as “Martina Martínez and Pérez, the Mouse” or “Martina Martínez y el ratoncito Pérez” in Tales Our Abuelitas Told or Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas.
A delightful song “La Cucarachita Martina” offers a brief version of the encounter between Martina and Pérez. It can be found in Sigue la música, number 7 of the collection Música amiga.
A different take on the story is presented in The great-granddaughter of Cucarachita Martina o La tataranieta de Cucarachita Martina which brings the story to present times.
READERS’ RESPONSES
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