Gloria Smiled: A Story About Disappointment, Resilience, and The Sorpresa!

PreS-Gr 3–Gloria, a sweet-faced quail, is excited about a special day that has finally arrived. She simply can’t understand it when her covey (a group of quails) doesn’t seem to share her glee, so she decides to plan a party to drum up some enthusiasm. Gloria hears mention of a “sorpresa,” and though she doesn’t know exactly what it means, she figures that it can’t be a good thing and may even involve a skunk! The day’s action, depicted in pleasant watercolor, takes Gloria through a landscape of cottonwood and cacti to the banks of the Rio Grande and through a patch of wild strawberries, highlighting the varied terrain of the Southwest. While the story is bland, the vocabulary words peppered throughout make it stand out from the average tale of animal adventure; Pacheco uses the opportunity to introduce Spanish words as well as the names of regional flora. A helpful glossary goes into further detail. Despite the scripture on the dedication page, this reads as a secular story.