Tonight, young and old / dance to moon and starlight too, / join in the fiesta, / the delicious hullabaloo. Lime lizards and purple armadillos sashay to the music of the rhyming text in this simple story of a desert dinner party. Presented bilingually with a Spanish translation by Alba Nora Martinez, this western frolic is winsomely illustrated in soft and soothing Southwestern shades. Slight but sassy, serve this one up with salsa and mariachi music. (Reviewed May 1, 1999)

Young readers experience a noche de fiesta complete with mariachis, salsa, and delicious fruits, and attended by various nocturnal desert animals. The somewhat stilted poem, presented in both English and Spanish, rhymes in both languages. The simple geometric patterns and warm colors of the illustrations help convey the southwestern setting.

PreS-Gr 2-Told in both English and Spanish verse, this is the sometimes-nonsensical story of a group of armadillos and lizards that host a party for their animal friends. Many of the half-rhymed and rhymed couplets sound forced in English. The narrative reads slightly more smoothly in Spanish, but the poetry and story are unremarkable. The accompanying cartoon drawings are equally unimpressive, with purple-and-orange triangle patterns drawn on flattened, green lizards and purple armadillos. Much hullabaloo about nothing.-Denise E. Agosto, formerly at Midland County Public Library, TX