Ruben's Rainbow/El Arco Iris de Ruben
 Carlos Harrison & Grizelle Paz
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Globo Libros, NY
  ISBN: 0970695306


Ruben lives in a black-and-white world/Rubén vivéa en un mundo blanco y negro, until one morning he falls out his bed -- plop!/Una mañana, Rubén se cayó de la cama, ¡PAF!

All of a sudden (please excuse me reverting to my native tongue -- no one near me speaks Spanish) Rubén's world is filled with color: a yellow canary, a green tree, a red fox, an orange starfish, the blue ocean, until he is filled with the wish to take all the colors home with him.

& then it began to rain -- comenzó a llover. When it stops a rainbow -- un arco iris -- appears. Rubén catches it in his cap & runs home to show his parents.

Now, I'm not bilingual, anymore. When I lived in Portugal & France, I could make myself understood, as I'd had a decade of learning to read & speak in Latin & French. When I came to America, however, it took me quite a while to think & speak in Americanese, & all those other languages fell into disuse.

When Globo Libros sent me this bilingual book & CD, I was thrilled. I wasn't sure how the accents over the letters made them sound, until I listened to the CD, & followed along in the book.

This is a fascinating way to listen to another language. You know the story, the letters are the same, & hearing it spoken, you can tell what the accents do.

Grizelle Paz's pictures are delightful, & I loved listening to the sound effects, too.

A good book, unapologetically whimsical & instructive. I hope Globo Libros publishes many more.
(10/13/02)

Rebecca