Borreguita and the Coyote

by Verna Aardema 

illustrated by Petra Mathers

©1991. New York. Dragonfly Press. Animal Fantasy.
550L
Picture Book. Bilingual.

This story is a folktale of a coyote who wants to eat a sheep, and a sheep who can outsmart him.

I would give this story a 27/32. I really enjoyed the illustrations and color used in this book. The book definitely had a great story line that reminded me very much of other folk tales that I have read, but this one is bilingual, which is really great for helping to have a diverse collection of books for children to read. I think that children would definitely be engaged in the story line of this book. This book shows some diversity in that the lamb (referred to as a she) outsmarts the wolf who is trying to eat her. In this way, it still portrays 'she' in a more positive light and having a protagonist type role in a book. Character development and cultural relevance were both okay, but there are some bilingual books out there that are of an even higher quality for children. Nonetheless, I think that this is a great book to have in the classroom or at home, and it teaches kids a few words in Spanish in this Spanglish book.

Here are some literary elements to look for in the book: 

Onomatopoeia: "Coyote shook the water off of his fur, freh, freh, freh."

Conflict and Solution: There are many conflicts that the sheep faces with the coyote and each time she find a new solution. 

For a mini lesson: Explore problem and solution with students by using this book and the problem the the sheep faces of the coyote wanting to each her, and all of the ways that the sheep comes up with to solve this problem.

Personification: The main coyote and the sheep in this book possess human like qualities because they can talk to one another.