Author : Pat Mora, Illustrator : Pablo Torrecilla, Translator : Gabriela Baeza Ventura
Preschool - 2nd Grade

La senora de la panaderia - The Bakery Lady

La senora de la panaderia - The Bakery Lady, Hardcover, Bilingual, Book, Pat Mora, Pablo Torrecilla, Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Preschool - 2nd Grade, 9781558853430, $16.95

$890.76 for the Bilingual Collection Blue Books Set, Including 20%-Off, Free Shipping, and No Sales Tax : 60 Hardcover Bilingual Books, 10 Softcover Bilingual Books, and 1 Hardcover Spanish Book

Mónica spends her life around a bakery, not just because she likes the sweets, but also because she loves her grandparents, the baker and the bakery lady. She watches wide-eyed, as the pans slip in and out of the oven and in and out of the appreciative customer’s hands straight into their happy bellies.  Pat Mora once again weaves a tale rich with tradition in which we become active participants in the wonderfully sweet world of la panadería. Children aged 3 to 7 will delight in the delicious sights and savory smells of the panadería and Mónica's quest to be the next "Bakery Lady."

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

School Library Journal : Gr 1-3-Monica loves to help out in her grandparents' bakery. She sells the bread, talks with the workers and the customers, and listens to her Abuela reminisce about how she and Abuelo started the shop. Just helping isn't enough for this motivated little girl, though. When she finds the Ni-o doll that is baked in the Three Kings' Ring, M-nica gets the honor of throwing a party for her friends and makes her grandmother's special lemon cookies for the occasion. Mora has once again succeeded in writing a warm family story that includes information about Mexican traditions and celebrations while appealing to the common elements that link people across cultures. The texts in both languages are smooth and colloquial, though a bit long for a read-aloud. Torrecilla's pen-and-ink and watercolor cartoons are big and bright, but are not up to the quality of the text. The faces all have a stylized, slightly squashed look, and an undeniable similarity that mitigates the individuality found in the text. Nonetheless, this is a satisfying read that could be successfully paired with Mary J. Andrade's The Vigil of the Little Angels (La Oferta, 2001) and Tomie dePaola's The Night of Las Posadas (Putnam, 1999) for a look at Mexican and Mexican-American celebrations.

Booklist : Gr. 1-3. A month after her beloved grandmother's death, Lorena and her mother go to what is now Grandpa's house to "clear out Grandma's stuff." Lorena, who can scarcely remember ever seeing her grandparents apart, is saddened by how listless Grandpa is now. But when she goes through a chest of her grandmother's things, she finds the shell necklace they made together. Grandpa puts on Grandma's flower-bedecked hat and gives Lorena the tiny heart on a chain he presented to Grandma when they were both 12 years old. The prose is a little overwrought in English, but the pictures, with their splendid, sturdy figures in fully realized spaces and Southwestern colors, engage with their direct humanity.

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