Cofer offers a slim bilingual collection of animal tales. In "The Animals' Grand Fiesta," arrogance gets the best of a lion and a lioness, and readers discover how goats lost their long bushy tails. A resourceful ant helps an older couple save their garden from a hungry goat in "The Brave Little Ant and El Señor Chivo." In the shortest (and most awkwardly told) tale, "A Funeral for Nangato," a cunning cat teaches a village of mice a lesson in how they live their lives. In the most entertaining story in the collection, "The Parrot Who Loved Chorizos: A Puerto Rican Tale," a frustrated cook bests a gluttonous bird with a penchant for spicy sausage. The entire English collection is followed by the Spanish version, and the second and fourth tales are set expressly in Puerto Rico. The remaining stories contain occasional Spanish words and animals that add a Latino flavor to otherwise universal tales. Readers familiar with the author's work may miss the original characters for which she is best known, as the tales are too short to allow many of her strengths as a writer to flourish. Humorous black-and-white illustrations complement the tales. Although a worthy addition due to the scarcity of such books, the sparse collection would have been strengthened by additional tales. (Folktales. 8-12)

Gr 4-6 Pura Belpr&3;-winner Judith Ortiz Cofer presents a bilingual book of Latino folktales about animals. This book is formatted with the English and Spanish versions of the tales on opposite sides rather than on opposing pages of a spread, you simply flip the book over to read the tales in the other language. These tales show the tables getting turned on animals, whether it is a pair of arrogant starving lions whose plot to cook a goat gets turned back on them, or a group of mice that bury a cat as a gesture of goodwill, only to find that the cat might not be dead. Also included are stories about a tiny ant that assists an elderly couple in saving their garden and a parrot who loves sausages.