Book Review Los Gatos Black on Halloween

Montez, Marissa. Los Gatos Black on Halloween, Henry Holt and Company, New York: Illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Marissa Montez is a Puerto Rico born author who has lived in many parts of the world before finally settling down in northern California where she resides with her family. She has won many awards for her work. She won the Pura Belpre award for Juan Bobo Goes to Work and she also won that same award for Los Gatos Black on Halloween. In this book she captures the spirit of Halloween. This book is an excellent multicultural book. Mrs. Montez includes many references to other cultures other than the United States. A couple of examples of this are the werewolf and the dancing skeletons. The werewolf originated in England, and the skeletons are a part of the Mexican holiday Dia Day Los Muertos. The way that she has written this book is in the format of a poem. This format makes the story flow very well from one page to the next. She has written this book using both English and Spanish words. The way that she uses her words is very easy for a student who does not speak Spanish. The reader can easily understand the Spanish words by reading the rest of the sentence. An example of this is on the first page about the black cats, “With ojos keen that squint and gleam”, the child should be able to conclude that ojos means eyes. This book also contains a Spanish to English glossary. If the Spanish words are not understood the child can look them up.
The illustrations in Los Gatos Black on Halloween are done by Yuyi Morales. She is an award winning Illustrator. She won the Christopher Award for her work on Harvesting Hope. Her illustrations for Los Gatos Black on Halloween are excellent. When looking at her illustrations they make you feel like you are really there. She does this with very detailed illustrations and with the dark color scheme.
This book is an excellent source to use to teach how different cultures celebrate the Halloween holiday.

When I Heard The Learn'd Professor

I really do not like this book all that much. The reason it that the book is to hard to follow. If I Had trouble following it I can imagine that an elementary student would also have that same trouble.

Los Gatos Black On Halloween by Marissa Montes

This book is an excellent book to read around Halloween. This book also gives some insight in to how other cultures celebrate the same holiday. The images in the book are so real that they seem to jump off the page. The cats eyes on the cover look like they glow in the dark.

The Name Jar By Yangsook Choi

This book is about a little girl named Unhei she is a Korean immigrant living in the United States. Unhei is very embarrassed by her name because some kids on the bus make fun of it and cannot pronounce it so when she gets to school she tells the students in her class that she does not have a name and the class comes up with a name jar for her but she cannot choose one that means as much as the one that she already has. This book would suit a second grade class because it is much easier to read than Maria Isabelle but it would also be a good book to use to teach about name from other countries.

I Love Saturdays y Domingos by Alma Flor Ada

This is a good story about a little girl who is of mixed heritage. In this book the little girl describes what a pleasure it is to spend time with both sets of grandparents.

My Name I Maria Isabel

Ideally I would like to use this book in a fourth grade class room. My students would be able to read this book on their own. This would be a good book to learn about names and what they mean.