#28 Cinco de Mouse-o (Spanish)

Cinco de Mouse-o! #28

Author: Judy Cox

Illustrator: Jeffery Ebbeler

Holiday House

2010

30 pages

Multi-cultural (Mexican or Latino)

            This book is about a mouse that wakes up and smells some amazing food. So he tries to find it. While he is looking for the food smell a cat starts to follow him. He finally finds the wonderful food smell at a Cinco de Mayo celebration. He gets incredible food from the people dropping snack size crumbs for a mouse. He has to run from the cat and sees a mariachi band, a piñata, and dancing. He gets away and goes home with dessert.     

            The medium was created with acrylic paint, pastels and colored pencils on paper. The pictures are drawn to the portion of the mouse so everything looks larger than life. Vibrant colors are used in the illustration because the book is about a festival. The illustrations look like you could feel the piñata or the mouse’s hair. 

            This book is appropriate for the lower level grades. It could be used to teach children about the Mexican or Latino culture. You could also teach students about the food chain by bring attention to the mouse and the cat. This book would be great to use during Cinco de Mayo to help younger children understand the culture of that celebration. This book has been awarded the Bank Street College of Education Best Books of 2011.