Alma Flor Ada

The Kite
El papalote

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Both good and bad events occur when a mother decides to make a kite for her four chil­dren. This dis­arm­ing story pro­vides a pat­tern that chil­dren can fol­low to cre­ate their own books. It is also a nat­ural oppor­tu­nity to dis­cover that fam­i­lies come in dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes, as the class explores how fam­ily tra­di­tions are passed on through generations.

One of the beloved titles of the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round, or in Span­ish, Cuen­tos para todo el año. The com­plete sto­ries of the series are:

SPRING
A Rose with Wings
A Sur­prise for Mother Rab­bit
The Empty Piñata

PRIMAVERA
Rosa alada
La sor­presa de Mamá Coneja
La piñata vacía

SUMMER
How the Rain­bow Came to Be
After the Storm
In the Cow’s Backyard

VERANO
Cómo nació el arco iris
Después de la tor­menta
La hamaca de la vaca

FALL
The Kite
What Are Ghosts Afraid Of?
“Turkey for Thanks­giv­ing?” “No, Thanks!”

OTOÑO
El papalote
El susto de los fan­tas­mas
–¿Pavo para la Cena de Gra­cias? –No, gracias.

WINTER
The Golden Cage
I Don’t Want to Melt
It Wasn’t Me

INVIERNO
La jaula dorada
¡No quiero der­re­tirme!
No fui yo

CDS AND CASSETTES DESCRIPTION

There is a spe­cial value to lis­ten­ing to a books read by the author. Such record­ings show just where the author wishes to con­vey feel­ings and emo­tions, empha­sis and sus­pense. When the text is put to music it acquires addi­tional inter­est for children.

I par­tic­u­larly like to read aloud and to record my read­ings so, for me, it was par­tic­u­larly joy­ful to record these twelve sto­ries in Eng­lish and Spanish.

The sto­ries can be found in indi­vid­ual cas­settes in Eng­lish and Span­ish, one for each book of the series, or in CDs in Eng­lish and Span­ish ver­sions. Each of the CDs con­tains the twelve sto­ries of the series.

A Spe­cial Bonus

Because these sto­ries have been so beloved by chil­dren, I con­ceived the idea of given them an extra dimen­sion. I have rewrit­ten the 12 sto­ries in Span­ish in verse for­mat. And Suni Paz, with her incom­pa­ra­ble cre­ativ­ity, has put them to music. So the Span­ish cas­settes and CD con­tain not only the story as pub­lished in the book told by me, but also the story retold in verse form and sang by Suni.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This book is very much based on real expe­ri­ences of my children’s early years. Kites were a very impor­tant part of my own child­hood. The joy they brought began in the process of mak­ing them. My father was very clever with his hands and could make won­der­ful kites. Then came the fun of let­ting them soar in the sky.

I have writ­ten exten­sively about these mem­o­ries in the book Bar­riletes, from the series Libros con Alma.

When my own chil­dren were grow­ing up I wanted to give them the same joy I had derived from fly­ing kites. But, alas!, I wasn’t as clever with my hands as my father had been. And build­ing a kite was any­thing but easy for me!

The anec­dote of being con­vinced by the chil­dren to bring home a stray cat did not hap­pen in con­junc­tion with fly­ing kites, but it did hap­pen. More than once.

The twelve books of this series are some of my best well known books among bilin­gual teach­ers and their stu­dents. They are also very dear to my heart since the inspi­ra­tion for most of them comes from my own children’s child­hood. I hope you will enjoy this book as much as the teach­ers who have shared with me their stu­dents’ enthu­si­asm. See An Author’s Study for an exam­ple of an activ­ity in response to this book.

ACTIVITIES

Print The Kite Col­or­ing Page

READERS’ RESPONSES

If you have enjoyed read­ing or shar­ing this book, I would very much like to hear from you. Please click here to send your comments.