The sun shines through the windows of Martha’s Panadería onto the shelves of freshly baked treats. The bakery holds tray after tray of hot Mexican sweet bread—conchas, orejas, cuernitos, empanadas, and cochinitos—all ready for hungry customers.
In the classic tradition of The Gingerbread Man, James Luna’s piggy cookie leaps off the baking tray and takes the reader on a mad dash through the barrio, past Lorenzo’s Auto Shop, Nita’s Beauty Salon, Leti’s Flower Shop, and Juana’s Thrift Shop.
The telephone repairman, the bus driver … each person the piggy encounters is greeted by his laugh and the repeated refrain: “Chase me! Chase me down the street! But this is one piggy you won’t get to eat! I ran away from the others and I’ll run away from you!” The cochinito fugitivo avoids being eaten by the long line of people chasing him through the neighborhood streets … until he meets a crafty little girl named Rosa!
Children—and adults too—will delight in the clever piggy’s escape from Martha’s Panadería in this entertaining re-telling of a familiar story set in a colorful Latino neighborhood. A recipe to make Mexican gingerbread pig cookies is included in both English and Spanish.
Click here to listen to the English read-along by James Luna.
Click here to listen to the Spanish read-along by James Luna.
Click here to listen to an interview with James Luna about his book, The Runaway Piggy / El cochinito fugitivo.
Winner, 2011-2012 Tejas Star Award
“The story of The Gingerbread Man gets a lively Mexican makeover in this bilingual tale.”—Publishers Weekly
“The runaway cookie in this Mexican bakery is a soft, brown, stubby-tailed piglet as impertinently bold and smug in his continual escape as his Gingerbread Boy cousin. [A] bouncy dual refrain extends the familiar cumulative text, rendered in both English and Spanish…Deep opaque acrylic paintings of a colorful barrio and its residents in pursuit add the right amount of cultural flavor to this vivid Latino retelling.”—Kirkus Reviews
JAMES LUNA is an elementary school teacher in Riverside, California. He has written two bilingual picture books for children, The Place Where You Live / El lugar donde vives (Piñata Books, 2015), and The Runaway Piggy / El cochinito fugitivo (Piñata Books, 2010), which was named to the 2011-2012 Tejas Star Reading List. Publishers Weekly praised the book, declaring, “The story of The Gingerbread Man gets a lively Mexican makeover.” He has also written A Mummy in Her Backpack / Una momia en su mochila (Piñata Books, 2012), his first bilingual book for intermediate readers.
LAURA LACÁMARA is a Cuban-American artist and author. She wrote and illustrated Dalia’s Wondrous Hair / El cabello maravilloso de Dalia (Piñata Books, 2013). She is the illustrator of The Runaway Piggy / El cochinito fugitivo (Piñata Books, 2010) and Alicia’s Fruity Drinks / Las aguas frescas de Alicia (Piñata Books, 2012) and the author of Floating on Mama’s Song / Flotando en la canción de mamá (HarperCollins, 2010). She lives in Venice, California, with her family.
CAROLINA VILLARROEL is the Brown Foundation Director of Research at Arte Público Press. Carolina began at Arte Público Press in 1997 as a Research Assistant while pursuing her Ph.D. in the UH Hispanic Studies Department. She now oversees the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project.
ATOS Interest Level: Lower Grades
Category: Picture Book
ATOS English: 2.9
ATOS Spanish: 3.1
LEXILE: 630L
LEXILE SPANISH: 610L
Accelerated Reader Quiz #: 138367
