Lorenzo’s Favorites!

¡Hola! Madres and Padres!

Permit me to introduce myself. My name is Lorenzo El Magnífico; please, por favor, just call me by my nickname, Loro. I’ve just perched on your blog to tell you about our growing collection of books in Spanish and English for los niños (boys and girls) at EWML. Did you know that we have bilingual stories in every shape and form: board books, picture books, CD/Book combinations, CDs and DVDs? Best of all, you don’t have to be fluent in Spanish to share them with your niños. Most of the stories have phonetic spellings to help you try out the new words.

I hope you will add “A Piñata in a Pine Tree” by Pat Mora and illustrated by Magaly Morales to your reading list: it’s arrived just in time for the Christmas holidays and you will find it on the holiday display table. What fun! From the first to the twelfth day of Christmas, a secret amiga brings a little girl a piñata in a pine tree, two pastelitos, three tamalitos, four luminarias, etc. With burritos bailando, trompas girando and estrellitas saltando, who could ask for a happier celebration? The ocho (8) pajaritos serenando, are my favorites-of course. But then, a library loro (or parrot, as I’m called in English), would naturally favor eight little serenading birds. ¿Verdad?

Every page of “A Piñata in a Pine Tree” is exciting! There are gifts to discover and to count (phonetic spellings are part of the illustrations). And, ¡Sorpresa! The illustrator has painted a second, very important story that evolves without words in the background of each page. ¡Mira con cuidado! Look carefully, and you’ll discover the little girl’s greatest gift of all. No wonder there are doce angelitos celebrando on the twelfth day of Christmas! It’s my favorite new Christmas story. Hope you like it, too!

¡Felicidades!
Lorenzo