LITTLE MICE / RATONCITOS

In this bilingual version of the popular Spanish song “Cinco Ratoncitos,” five mice hurry up to eat their cheese.

“Five little mice with tails wide awake… // Wiggle their noses / and give their ears a shake. // Eyes wide open / they quickly munch… // Before they get caught by the cat for lunch! // They finish their cheese, / and back home they creep…. // They close the door / and go right to sleep. / Shhhhh….” A little distractingly, Jaramillo has incorporated geometry in the form of differently shaped flaps. This device works at times, as with the playful mice that can be found under the square lids of boxes or hiding under a circular flap in the cheese. Little ones will squeal with delight when they lift the cat’s face to reveal his dream of mice baked into a cupcake! But the creatures found under an array of flaps—triangle, octagon, square, and hexagon—add nothing to the rhyme. As with Jaramillo’s very successful previous books, the book is constructed concertina fashion, thus giving both languages equal value. Both the Spanish and English versions have identical illustrations; the English text varies slightly from the Spanish to account for rhyme and measure.

Here’s looking forward to the addition of more books to this delightful series.