Los Gatos Black on Halloween - Hardcover

Montes, Marisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805074295 ISBN 13: 9780805074291

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2006

Synopsis

Follow los monstruos and los esqueletos to the Halloween party

Under October's luna, full and bright, the monsters are throwing a ball in the Haunted Hall. Las brujas come on their broomsticks. Los muertos rise from their coffins to join in the fun. Los esqueletos rattle their bones as they dance through the door. And the scariest creatures of all aren't even there yet!

This lively bilingual Halloween poem introduces young readers to a spooky array of Spanish words that will open their ojos to the chilling delights of the season.

Los Gatos Black on Halloween is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year, the winner of the 2008 Pura Belpre Medal for Illustration and a Pura Belpre Honor Book for Narrative.

About this title

About the Author:

Marisa Montes has written several books for young readers, including Juan Bobo Goes to Work, which won a Pura Belpré Honor. She lives in northern California.

Yuyi Morales is an author/illustrator whose books have won the Pura Belpré Award, the Christopher Award, and the Jane Addams Award. She lives in northern California.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-4–Montes smoothly incorporates Spanish terms into a rhythmic poem describing a moonlit Halloween night. Los esqueletos rattle bones and clatter in a dance, los fantasmas drag their chains and shriek their pains, and los muertos emerge from their graves to join other creatures at a haunted casa for music and dancing. However, the party stops dead with the arrival of trick-or-treaters, which causes the frightened spooks to hide, for The thing that monsters most abhor/Are human niños at the door! The full-bleed paintings create a creepy mood with curving lines, fluid textures, and dusky hues. Rounded figures dance across the atmospheric spreads, which depict blank-faced skeletons, a toothy werewolf, and a child zombie with glowing eyes. The pictures are eerie enough to tingle spines, but the effect is leavened with bits of humor (witches perform skateboard tricks on their brooms, a vampire admires himself in a mirror that reflects only his clothing). The poems cadenced rhymes and descriptive language build suspense until the satisfying ending. Spanish words are easy to understand in context, but are also defined in a glossary with pronunciation guides. This book is just right for children who are beginning to find typical Halloween fare a bit too tame.–Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0805074295
• ISBN 13: 9780805074291
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Morales Yuyi