CARTERAS Y CARTEROS

Little ones can sing in Spanish as they follow the pictures in this board book about postal carriers.

There’s a “cartero” (postman) in the town that delivers letters the world over; so starts this original song by Caracolino, as Canizales’ illustration shows a postal worker doing just that. Next, comes a “cartera” (postwoman) on a new bike carrying packages made by “una abuela” (a grandmother). There’s a letter from Portugal and another from Senegal. The postal carriers move letters all over the world and finally “traen a casa la carta que yo espero.” Readers bilingual in Spanish and English will know that this means “bring home the letter I’m waiting for.” As the text is entirely in Spanish, readers who don’t know the language will miss some meaning, but the illustrations do help. Publishing simultaneously in this Canta Libro (Singing Book) series is La Jirafa Rafa. Rafa is a giraffe with a mustache and glasses that lives on the savannah and drinks water from a water bottle because the water from the well is not drinkable. Before reading the books, adult readers may want to download the QR code on the back cover of the books to hear Caracolino sing the songs. The music is simple and straightforward enough that it will be easy to sing along with the books. Little ones will enjoy the illustrations—particularly the one with Rafa spitting the bad-tasting water out. The humans depicted are multiethnic.

Add this to the sorely empty bookshelf dedicated to toddler songs in Spanish.