PUMPKIN FIESTA

Foolish Fernando joins the likes of Juan Bobo in a folktale-like formula starring a 19th-century story anti-hero who’s always getting things wrong. Old Juana grows the biggest, roundest, brightest pumpkins in San Miguel, while her neighbor, Foolish Fernando, wants to discover her secret. Brightly colored oil paintings humorously use movement and contrast to show, on three occasions, Foolish Fernando spying on Old Juana in the pumpkin patch, and every time missing the point. He dons a dress and straw hat, coos and sings as he waters, and solicits his bull Toro to join him, all in an effort to imitate Old Juana and her burro Dulcita. Nothing works; Old Juana’s pumpkins prosper while Fernando’s shrivel. His last desperate attempt is to pass off Old Juana’s three prize pumpkins as his own at the fiesta, but he’s just too foolish to pull it off. Champions of honesty and hard work will not be disappointed in Old Juana’s clever outwitting of her bumbling neighbor, and her ultimate transformation of his roguery with a promise of mentoring. (Picture book. 5-9)