Alma Flor Ada

Ten Little Puppies / Diez perritos

Book Descrip­tion

This story has been adapted from a pop­u­lar children’s song. Count along in Span­ish and Eng­lish as each one of ten adorable pup­pies dis­ap­pears from the pages.

Col­or­ful and play­ful illus­tra­tions by artist Ulises Wensell, a vibrant ren­di­tion of the clas­sic nurs­ery rhyme by Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Cam­poy with a new and sat­is­fy­ing end­ing, and a delight­ful Eng­lish adap­ta­tion by Rosalma Zubizarreta will make this edi­tion an instant fam­ily favorite.

The book offers sev­eral pages of non-fiction infor­ma­tion about the ten puppy breeds featured.

Pup­pies have never been so irresistible!

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Diez per­ri­tos song was a favorite dur­ing my child­hood. Years later it would become a favorite of my own chil­dren. While the song is lively and play­ful, there was always a cer­tain amount of sad­ness as the pup­pies dis­ap­peared to an uncer­tain fate. So when Isabel Cam­poy and I decided to cre­ate a book based on this song we made sure that, when the pup­pies dis­ap­pear from the page, fol­low­ing the rhyme it’s to engage in fun adventures.

Dogs have been an impor­tant part of my life, as well as for Isabel. The pup­pies here honor the dogs in our lives.

It was a par­tic­u­lar joy that Ulises Wensell would cre­ate the won­der­ful illus­tra­tions. Ulises, his cre­ative wife Paloma, and I have been good friends since the early 1970s. when Ulises illus­trated my read­ing series Hag­amos caminos, cre­at­ing a series of whim­si­cal char­ac­ters that con­tinue to enliven the pages of those books and work­books. And since that time I cher­ished the dream of hav­ing a book illus­trated by him. It was par­tic­u­larly touch­ing that when I asked him that the last puppy, the one that remains as the protagonist’s great love, be a Samoyed he remem­bered our beau­ti­ful Snowflake that he had met very many years ago. I know that last puppy was painted with spe­cial love.

REVIEWS

School Library Journal

In one of the most pop­u­lar count­ing rhymes in Span­ish folk­lore, 10 adorable pup­pies decrease by one with each page turn. Entice­ments such as snow, pas­tries, fire­works, a new home, the­ater, sick­ness, and fun cause the pup­pies to move on, until only one remains as a beloved com­pan­ion for a child. Vibrant colored-pencil and water­color illus­tra­tions are done in deep hues of green, pas­tels, and earth tones to cre­ate real­is­tic images that cap­ture the spon­ta­neous, play­ful, and affec­tion­ate nature of the pups. The text can be sung or spo­ken in Span­ish or Eng­lish. The Eng­lish trans­la­tion skill­fully uti­lizes rhyme to main­tain the story’s authen­tic­ity while accu­rately reflect­ing the orig­i­nal poem. The back sec­tion con­tains musi­cal nota­tion of the melody, gui­tar chord sym­bols, the bilin­gual verses in their entirety, and a glos­sary with infor­ma­tion about the 10 dog breeds fea­tured. Large, appeal­ing illus­tra­tions will make this a favorite for sto­ry­time pre­sen­ta­tions; an excel­lent source in help­ing chil­dren to develop pre­read­ing skills, and a fun way to intro­duce them to early math con­cepts such as addi­tion and sub­trac­tion.
–Cristi Jenk­ins, Fort Van­cou­ver Library Dis­trict, WA