Gathering fresh material, Ada and colleagues expand the scope of ¡Pio Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes (2003) to include not only baby songs, but riddles, proverbs, play rhymes, jump-rope rhymes, a circular tale and even a funny ballad about a dead cat brought back to life by the smell of sardines. Except for English-only section introductions, the contents—index included—are bilingual, Spanish first, with the English translations editorially tweaked into rhyme: “Una, dos, y tres / pluma, tintero y papel / para escribir una carta / a mi querido Miguel,” becomes “One, two three / paper, ink and pen / all to write a letter / to my sweetheart Ben.” Suarez decorates the pages with smiling, round-faced, sweet-looking children and animals bouncing about exuberantly. As there are no source notes and the compilers even tuck in a few insufficiently identified poems of their own, this wins no high marks for scholarship—but young listeners singing or clapping along won’t mind. (Bilingual poetry. 3-8)
