BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - ADVISABLE
APPEALS TO: SOME
Adela loves her family’s mariachi band—the music, dancing, clapping, shouting (“los gritos”). She happily shouts right back, until she remembers the one fact about it that she doesn’t love—she’s not in it. As she tries each element of the performance for herself, she cannot blow or pluck or swirl as her family members can and worries it will take too long to be good enough. She wants to be part of the band now. As she listens and sighs through yet another performance without her, she watches her tia rush to the front before the last song finishes and is struck with an idea. Los gritos! Adela finds a way to contribute right now to something she loves even while realizing it will take time to develop the skills needed to participate in other ways.
The illustrator does a good job depicting Adela’s big feelings on the page through her facial expressions and body postures. The reader will also learn about the different elements of a mariachi band and will relate to Adela’s experience of trying but failing to replicate the sounds and movements of her family members who are the musicians and dancers. An author’s note includes more details about the instruments and costumes. She also mentions how her grandfather and uncle were members of a mariachi group in Utah.
P.K. Foster, MLS, elementary school teacher-librarian
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