Spanish Pronto: Spanish Children's Book Reviews

Juan y sus zapatos by Carlos Pellicer López

“A Juan le gusta mucho caminar”. (“Juan likes walking a lot.”)

So begins this richly colored picture book which shows us all the angles—through lots of imagination and a little bit of cubism—of the life of Juan and his shoes. After a day of climbing fruit trees and eating too many guavas, Juan must stay at home in bed to recuperate. Far from the boring day he expected, Juan's day brightens considerably when he makes a startling discovery—his shoes can talk! They tell him about what he and they did together, the night before, in a dream he had slept too soundly to remember. From that day on, Juan keeps on walking, but now he walks with a newfound respect for his shoes, and for his imagination.

What I like about this book:

• The author is Mexican, so the Spanish is the same kind that most Spanish-speaking children in the U.S. speak.*
• The child-like, bold illustrations are beautifully done, especially in their attention to minor details (without being at all busy), and in their use of light and shadow, unusual perspectives (aided by some cubism), and facial expressions which show clearly recognizable emotions, helping to carry the story.
• The dream sequence should delight just about anybody.
• This would make a great storytime book. The pictures are rich and engaging, but also clear and uncluttered, making it easy to see what is happening, even from a distance. The text accompanying each picture is short, about 30 words per page, so this book would work well for children as young as preschool age (perhaps even a little younger).
• The book itself is large (8.5 x 11 inches) and has a sturdy binding
• The main character clearly eats a lot of fruit, sometimes too much, and also does a lot of walking, making him a great role model for healthy living. In the first and last pictures Juan appears to be quite some distance away from opposite sides of the same hill.

Spanish level: Intermediate to advanced intermediate, but this book is also fairly short

Example sentence: "Los zapatos le contaron que en su sueño ellos lo habían llevado caminando por los tejados..."

English level: None. This book is written entirely in Spanish.

Publisher: Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), Mexico City
Catalog number: 100278E
[20] pp.; illus.; 27 x 21 cm.
ISBN 986-16-7021-3
Hardcover
Original copyright date: 1982, PROMEXA
Copyright 2003, First Edition, Fondo de Cultura Económica
LC 1863 Dewey 808.068 P558j

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*(Generally speaking, the Spanish of Spain, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, represents one main variety of Spanish, and the Spanish of everything north of Argentina and Chile, including the U.S., is the other main variety.)