SING, LITTLE SACK!
A Folktale from Puerto Rico
adapted by Nina Jaffe & illustrated by Ray Cruz
On Level 3 of the ``Bank Street Ready-to-Read'' series, a prosaic reshaping of Pura BelprÇ's ``The Earring'' (The Tiger and the Rabbit, 1965), about a girl who, after taking off her earrings to play by the shore, is caught in a sack by an imp-like man who then earns money in the marketplace with his ``magical singing sack''; she's rescued when her song is recognized. Like BelprÇ, Jaffe gives ``Marisol's'' songs in both Spanish and English; but in simplifying the brief tale and padding it with local color, she robs it of drama and folkloric resonance: in BelprÇ, the girl's mother warns against the bathing that clearly betokens a loss of innocence; in Marisol's everyday world, her mother sends her to the beach to play, while it's hard to believe, here, that people would think the sack is magic. Nonetheless, an adequate if bland reader. Cruz's realistic illustrations are attractive, though a few of his faces verge on caricature. (Easy reader. 4-8)