Salta y brinca, Hop Jump, Del Sol Books

Author : Ellen Stoll Walsh, Translators : Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Preschool - 2nd Grade

Salta y brinca
Hop Jump

Salta y brinca, Softcover, Spanish, Book, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Preschool - 2nd Grade, 0152013563, # 6031s, $7.00
Hop Jump, Softcover, English, Book, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Preschool - 2nd Grade, 015201375X, # 6032s, $7.00

With wonderful collage art, Ellen Stoll Walsh has created a delightful story that promotes creativity. This exciting book will spark discussions on individuality and uniqueness as well as sharing and solidarity. (K-3)

Listen to Vienna Rose read Hop Jump to you. A marvelous example of the magical encounter between a child and books that we wish for all children.

Publishers Weekly : A frog teaches her cohorts to dance; "Wide-eyed and wiggling, rendered in a fresh, focused palette and invitingly designed, these hip hopsters are a joy to behold," said PW in a starred review. Also available in a Spanish-language edition, Salta y brinca ($6, -201356-3). Ages 3-8.

School Library Journal : PreSchool-Grade 2-"'It's always the same,'" complains Betsy, a green-speckled blue frog. She is tired of watching the others of her ilk engaging in their monotonous, "Hop jump, hop jump." Instead, she imitates leaves-leaping, turning, and twisting-as they float to the ground. "'It's called dancing,'" she says. The frogs at first reject the idea, and then all but one join her. Betsy declares, "'There's room for dancing and for hopping.'" This gentle lesson in diversity and tolerance is presented in direct, graceful prose. Although there are just a few words per page, the text flows smoothly and is perfectly coordinated with the cut-paper collage illustrations. The ever-changing positions and relationships of the frogs, speckled with yellow, green, and blue, hold readers' interest. The large, clearly seen figures and flowing language will make this book a popular and useful story time choice.

Booklist : Ages 3-6. Betsy the dancer watches the other frogs go back and forth, back and forth, "Hop jump, hop jump. It's always the same." At first an outcast for her leaps and turns, she eventually inspires the others to try their own moves. When the other frogs then thoughtlessly turn on the last happy hopper, spurning his hopping and jumping, Betsy comes to the rescue, stating categorically that there's room for both dancing and hopping. Preschoolers will understand the message, but they'll find the illustrations the most captivating part of the book. Using collages of textured and speckled paper against a spare, white background, Walsh creates a series of dynamic double-page spreads that will have kids hopping, jumping, and dancing. Few illustrators working in collage have Walsh's sensitivity to line, which energizes every well-composed picture in this simple, satisfying book.

Kirkus Reviews : Another outstandingly handsome book from the creator of Mouse Count (1991, ALA Notable). Betsy, a blue frog, only watches while the other frogs hop and jump, ``always the same''; she's more interested in the gyrations of a floating leaf, which inspire her to devise new movements, uniquely hers, that she calls ``dancing.'' When the other frogs declare there's ``No room for dancing,'' she's undeterred. But once she's found her own place ``for dancing only,'' the others are curious and join in- -except for one holdout hopper. ``No room for hopping,'' declare the converts, but Betsy is wiser: ``Yes, there's room...For dancing and for hopping.'' This amiable fable, briefer than the words it takes to describe it, is set in a large, square book with plenty of room for the cut-out frogs--in artfully spattered shades of green, except for the blue Betsy--to leap and twirl against a crisp white ground. A beautifully designed book that, like Walsh's earlier efforts, yields new subtleties and visual delights with each reading. (Picture book. 3-8)