RUBEN’S JUNGLE/LA SELVA DE RUBEN

A simple and repetitive tale of a boy whose dream visit to the jungle rewards him with a clutch of stuffed animals is full of soothing blue and green swatches and features a cheerfully cartoonish Ruben and his animal friends. The main attraction, though, is the inclusion of an audio CD featuring three readings of the text: once in English, once in Spanish, and finally a bilingual version in which the Spanish version immediately follows the English text of a page. The CD makes this a useful instructional tool for early native-speaking readers of either language or for students of either as a “foreign” language. The fairly slow and distinct recordings of the text make it easy for members of either group to read along while listening. In addition, the repetitive nature of Ruben’s conversations with the animals will meet preschoolers’ need for predictability while the emphasis on basic animal characteristics—the elephant’s trunk, the lion’s mane—will bolster a youngster’s sense of how to recognize various animals. These not insignificant strengths are offset by Harrison’s rather pedestrian and bland tale. Librarians will likely want to shelve this one not with the picture books but rather with the AV kits for listening centers. (Picture book. 3-6)