Del Sol Books provides the best Spanish/English/Bilingual Children's Books/CDs/DVDs, featuring Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, and Suni Paz

Marina is a girl with a great imagination who loves to dream about the faraway lands that her grandparents left to come to the U.S. Her mind is filled with the stories of Mexico told by her grandfather and the stories of Hawaii told by her grandmother. Through the stories and the pictures of the Hawaiian side of her family, Marina dreams of the beauty of the islands. She admires the dresses worn by her grandmother and her extended family, and she yearns for her very own, full of brilliant colors and dazzling images. Her muumuu must be one-of-a-kind, unlike any other, just like Marina herself.

Marina's search for the perfect muumuu prompts an outing that she will never forget when her grandmother takes her to the bustling downtown in search of the unique fabric for her special dress. Marina's Muumuu becomes not just the search for a beautiful dress of the islands, but also a joyful celebration of cultural heritage and family tradition that Marina and readers aged 3 to 7 will be able to share again and again.

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

School Library Journal : K-Gr 2-Marina is a girl with great imagination. With equal facility, she can imagine herself in Mexico, the country from which her grandfather came, or Hawaii, her grandmother's homeland. After looking at pictures of her aunts and cousins in colorful muumuus, Marina decides she wants one for herself. She has a particular combination in mind: hot pink and lime green, sea blue, turquoise, and magenta. She saves her money and then, though she and her grandmother look and look, not a store has the garment of her dreams. It is not until she stumbles into a fabric shop that she finds what she wants. This deceptively simple story reads as well in Spanish as it does in English-a smooth contemplative prose that calls up both the quiet of the islands and the busy, anticipatory swirl of the marketplace. Torrecilla's acrylic cartoon illustrations in bright, hot colors catch the eye and hold it, making this a good choice for group sharing. Use it with Pat Mora's The Rainbow Tulip (Viking, 1999) for stories about the significance clothing can carry.

Booklist : Gr. 2-5. A cheerful story about Marina, who loves to imagine places she has never been. She loves her grandfather's stories about Mexico, and her grandmother's about the islands of Hawaii. She decides she wants a muumuu in all the colors and motifs of the tropics, like the one she sees in her mind's eye. She and her grandmother go downtown, but do not find what Marina longs for (the image of her with droopy expression wearing a confection of fuchsia and bows is irresistible). At last, in a fabric store, they locate just the right cloth, and bring it home to make the muumuu of her dreams. Gloriously bright tropical colors and patterns fill these gaily decorated pages; Marina, with her wavy dark hair and emerald eyes, fits right in. The simple text appears in both Spanish and English.

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