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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