Practice Makes (Almost) Perfect

Gr 1-3–This series speaks to young readers who dream of being on stage. In the first book (see ISBN 9781631637292), Stage Fright, cousins Maria and Mateo are eager to jump into their school play. It’s audition day and Maria has a bad case of stage fright. Happily, Mateo steps in to help her overcome it. In the second book, Practice Makes (Almost) Perfect, it’s the first day of practice, but the two cousins have gotten so caught up in the excitement of the costumes that they skipped the harder things like practicing their dance moves. Once on stage, rehearsal quickly becomes a disaster; they bump into almost everybody, turn stage left instead of stage right, and jump when they should be slide stepping. With that, Maria and Mateo both learn a valuable theatrical and life lesson: practice is important and by working hard, they will avoid the embarrassment of letting themselves and their friends down. Predoi fills the pages with vibrantly colored illustrations of Latine children and adults. Using a carefully chosen mixture of English and Spanish words to tell the story, Carmona includes glossaries of Spanish language and theatrical terms that define unfamiliar words for young readers.