Blog #29 Juan Bobo Goes to Work

Blog #29

Juan Bobo Goes to Work
Retold by Marisa Montes
Illustrated by Joe Cepeda
Harper Collins
2000
29 pages

Multicultural: Puerto Rican Folklore

                I chose this book because of the brightly detailed cover. This is the traditional Puerto Rican folktale about a boy who tries to do things right, but just leaves a disaster zone behind him no matter what he does. The boy gets asked to do a simple job on the farm, but he ends up causing a disaster. No matter how simple the task, Juan Bobo always seems to do something wrong. Once more, he gets plenty of jobs around his village, but he loses all of his money!

                The illustrations in this story are captivating and bold. They were rendered using what looks to be acrylic. The brush strokes are clearly visible and it looks as though the illustrator used a dry brush due to the thickness and opaqueness to the pictures. Several of the pages feature vignettes of Juan Bobo and other characters, but he is mostly depicted by himself working hard. 

                This book is appropriate for K-3^rd grade. It is a great way to introduce Spanish into the classroom. One of the best features of this book is the Spanish glossary in the back of the book. This help readers understand what the various Spanish words throughout the text mean. Another good way to incorporate this book into your classroom is to use it as a character education lesson on following directions.