LITTLE CROW TO THE RESCUE/EL CUERVITO AL RESCATE

In this pourquoi tale, a father tells his son why crows fly away as soon as a human being approaches. In his story a father crow tells his son about the perfidy of humans who, instead of appreciating the help that birds and other animals gave them when the world was young, are jealous of the animals’ abilities. Youngsters should enjoy the irony of the birds’ failure to understand why people don’t want them eating their seeds, as well as sharing the young crow’s excitement when he brings a new behavior into the crow world. Alcántara’s illustrations are beautiful full-page paintings that employ soft-edged, pastel-toned backgrounds layered off from the human and crow characters, as well as certain foregrounds, with bold outlines. The crows have a comic expressiveness like that of cartoons, while the humans and their farm animals feature rounded, weighty and somewhat geometrical forms and patterns. Both English and Spanish versions of the story flow smoothly. (Picture book. 4-9)