GROWING UP ON THE PLAYGROUND/NUESTRO PATIO DE RECREO

Ana and her friends enjoy the school playground until they outgrow it in the sixth grade.

On her first day of kindergarten, Ana goes down the slide to her new friends waiting at the bottom to meet her. As the school years go by, each year brings a new source of pleasure on the playground. In the first grade, another new friend encourages her to swing high. In the second grade, an outing to the zoo inspires a monkey game. In the third grade, basketball skills are developed, and in the fourth grade, she teaches her friend to play handball. In the fifth grade, the friends play soccer. But when they get to sixth grade, it is time to leave the playground for the younger kids. As they prepare to leave, they first relive all the games they played throughout their primary school years. Then it is time to say goodbye—until Ana returns to her school and playground, as a teacher. Always dressed in uniforms that suggest a parochial school, perhaps, the children come from different ethnic backgrounds. Ana herself has brown skin and long, black hair. The illustrations have a frozen, static feel, even when portraying the children in full movement, and the retrospective, nostalgic tone seems more appropriate to an adult audience than children. As is often the case with bilingual books, the pages can at times look very text heavy, with English above and Spanish beneath.

Fails to engage.