A GIFT FROM PAPA DIEGO/UN REGALO DE PAP DIEGO

A nicely done bilingual tale about a little boy who misses his grandfather. Little Diego lives in Texas, but Pap‡ Diego remains across the border in Mexico. When his father gives him some old Superman comics to look at, Dieguito gets an idea: If he had a Superman suit he could fly across the border to see Papa Diego every day. He asks for one for his birthday, but the suit doesn't perform as expected. Bitterly disappointed, Dieguito thinks he's having an awful birthday until a surprise visit from Papa Diego gives him exactly what he's been wishing for. Parallel columns of text tell the story in English and in Spanish, accompanied by innovative illustrations, originally modeled with clay, then painted with acrylics and photographed. Reminiscent of Mexican folk art, they fit the story especially well, conveying its warmth and poignancy; geometric clay borders and small figurines on text pages complete the package.