Wednesday, September 12, 2012

REFORMA Review: Grandma's Pear Tree


Grandma’s Pear Tree/El peral de abuela. 
By Suzanne Santillan. Illus. by Atilio Pernisco. Trans. by Cambridge BrickHouse
McHenry, IL: Raven Tree Press, 2010. 32 pp. $16.95 (Hardcover). ISBN 978-1-934960-80-6. 
Grades K-2. 
English with some Spanish.

 After getting his ball stuck in his Abuela’s pear tree, a young boy asks various family members for help. Each of them give him advice on how to get the ball out of the tree but their suggestions only make matters worse. The simple vocabulary of the text is appropriate for the intended audience; however, the character dialog seems unnatural with Spanish words being repeated after their English equivalent and at times there are gaps in the text that will not be easy for early readers to follow. In addition, Spanish words are highlighted in a different color than the surrounding English text. In some instances, the chosen color makes the Spanish text hard to read against the background of the page. While the cartoon illustrations carry a certain charm about them, they are not consistent with the story, going from day to night and back to day with no logical explanation.

Not Recommended.


Naidoo, J. C. (2010). Grandma’s Pear Tree/El peral de abuela. Written by Suzanne Santillan. Illus. by Atilio Pernisco. Trans. by Cambridge BrickHouse. REFORMA Newsletter, 28(1/2), 21.

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