“This is the place where you live. / This is the kitchen, warm and sunny, / with tortillas, hot chocolate and everything yummy, / here in the place where you live.”
Young children will delight in reading this simple rhyming text with a recurring refrain that describes a loving home and neighborhood. There’s the garden, “alive and green / with peppers and squash that you planted in spring,” the neighbor who trades sweet cornbread for Grandma’s home-made tortillas and the library where kids read about voyages, magic and giants.
There’s the school where friends play, learn and grow, and the park where kids swing, slide, laugh and climb, all in “the place where you live.” And at the end of a long day, Mamá and Papá hug you tight because “you make them so glad.”
Lively illustrations in vibrant colors bring to life award-winning children’s book author James Luna’s affectionate tribute to home. This charming bilingual book will encourage young children to talk—and even write—about their own families, neighborhoods and homes.
Click here to listen to the English read-along by James Luna.
Click here to listen to the Spanish read-along by James Luna.
“Children see themselves as members of their community and come to the realization that that whole community shares the place where they live. A lighthearted celebration of a child’s sense of place and belonging.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Illustrations of bright and bold mixed media frame the places and gentle rhyming bilingual text with imagery that is visually appealing and ends by bringing the reader back to the home, the porch, and the family who embrace one another and the place where they live. The story line is a simple one and the colorful illustrations support and extend the text in ways that entertain and inform young readers and remind us all of the importance of valuing our family, friends, and communities.”—The Children’s Bookshelf, CMU Public Radio
JAMES LUNA is an elementary school teacher in Riverside, California. He is the author of a picture book, The Runaway Piggy / El cochinito fugitivo (Piñata Books, 2010), which was selected by Texas schoolchildren as their favorite book on the Tejas Star Reading List, and a short, bilingual novel for intermediate readers, A Mummy in Her Backpack / Una momia en su mochila (Piñata Books, 2012).
THELMA MURAIDA illustrated Clara and the Curandera / Clara y la curandera by Monica Brown, Cecilia and Miguel Are Best Friends / Cecilia y Miguel son mejores amigos by Diane Gonzales Bertrand and My Big Sister / Mi hermana mayor by Samuel Caraballo. An accomplished artist and designer, she lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.
GABRIELA BAEZA VENTURA is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Houston. She has translated numerous children’s books, including Dalia’s Wondrous Hair / El cabello maravilloso de Dalia (Arte Público Press, 2014), There’s a Name for this Feeling: Stories / Hay un nombre para lo que siento: Cuentos (2014), Adelita and the Veggie Cousins / Adelita y las primas verduritas (2011) and Remembering Grandma / Recordando a Abuela (2003).
ATOS Interest Level: Lower Grades
Category: Picture Book
ATOS English:3.0
ATOS Spanish: 3.5
Teaching Guide Here
