Menudo Sunday: A Spanglish Counting Book

K-Gr 3–A delightful family story that also serves as bilingual counting book. “Uno cozy casita” and “Two grinning abuelitos” welcome readers and arriving family members to a Sunday gathering for food, fun and festivities. Mixing English and Spanish with a generous serving of visual hilarity and context clues, the narrative invites readers into the family’s preparation for the meal while enjoying the company of kids, dogs, and adults as they count their way in both languages. Arriving at the numerical pinnacle of 15/quince, the family is left with a smashed bowl and spilled soup. Restarting at numero uno, the family takes a collective deep breath and the meal is created anew. Fourteen stars twinkle as the family says goodnight to the two loving grandfathers and kisses and hugs are shared all around. Back matter includes a Spanish glossary, tips for hosting a Menudo Sunday and a black and white “photograph” of the grandfathers decades earlier in their relationship. The illustrations, made with pencil and charcoal linework over digital colors, have warm tones that effectively capture the emotions in the story while providing enough detail for the text to be understood whether Spanish is understood or not.