Los Gatos Black on Halloween
By Marisa Montes and Yuyi Morales
4/5
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About this ebook
Follow los monstruos and los esqueletos to the Halloween party
Under October's luna, full and bright, the monsters are throwing a ball in the Haunted Hall. Las brujas come on their broomsticks. Los muertos rise from their coffins to join in the fun. Los esqueletos rattle their bones as they dance through the door. And the scariest creatures of all aren't even there yet!
This lively bilingual Halloween poem introduces young readers to a spooky array of Spanish words that will open their ojos to the chilling delights of the season.
Los Gatos Black on Halloween is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year, the winner of the 2008 Pura Belpre Medal for Illustration and a Pura Belpre Honor Book for Narrative.
Marisa Montes
Marisa Montes has written several books for young readers, including Juan Bobo Goes to Work, which won a Pura Belpré Honor. She lives in northern California.
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Reviews for Los Gatos Black on Halloween
94 ratings17 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great rhymes, and wonderful use of figurative language in addition to the clever introduction of Spanish terms. Clever ending too!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/54Q 3PThe illustrations of the spooky Halloween spectacle are cleverly detailed and match the haunted fun of the book. The intermixing of Spanish and English words is makes for a fun, captivating read. I liked how Los Muertos were tied in with other classic Halloween icons. The "spookiest" guests that scare away the creatures from the monstrous ball will delight and entertain young readers.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I did not like this book very well and I thought that it had some mature themes for a picture book and not really any themes to focus on for younger children. I did like the bilingual aspect of the book especially combining the english and spanish words in the same sentence getting the children familiar with both languages side by side.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In my opinion this is the best multicultural book that I have read. The language in this story was very fluent even though it would switch from English to Spanish, but when reading you can use contexts clues to understand the Spanish words. For example "las tumbas open, tombs awake". Since the language was written as a poem it was like a song which went great with the scary feeling of the book. The illustrations were dark in color but the character faces were funny which I think many students would enjoy reading. I thought the story was engaging and a great read for students especially around the time of Halloween.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Los Gatos Black on Halloween is a fun way to pick up some Spanish vocabulary. Marisa Montes writes a fun, whimsical poem with a sort of floating text that matches the colorful and engaging illustrations by Yuyi Morales. This book can be a great teaching opportunity for students comparing Mexico and the Day of the Dead with the United States' celebration of Halloween. Any child will have fun looking at the detailed illustrations. The Spanish vocabulary is seamlessly woven into the English text, and both children and parents will enjoy using the words in daily conversation. Ages 4-8
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Age: Primary, IntermediateThis book is a fantasy book. There are no such thing as witches and skeletons that actually are alive and move around. The author makes it seem as if it is real though.There are also no main characters in the story. There are just different pages that talk about the different types of monsters and scary things that are seen on Halloween. The theme of this book is not to be scared of the different things on Halloween. At the end, it says that all of these monsters are more scared of children then anything in the world. So if they are scared for Halloween, they might not be as scared after reading this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/53P"Las brujas boogie, muertos bop,Los esqueletos do the hop.The ghosts in their transparent waltzGlide through the wolfman's somersaults."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genre: FantasyReview: This is a good example of fantasy because it is a book on Halloween describing ghost, witches and other characters related to Halloween. Media: Watercolor, Pencil, Color Pencil
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SUMMARYIt is Halloween and all of the mythical creatures are headed to a ball. Witches come on broomsticks, skeletons rattle their bones, ghosts drag their chains, and the werewolf prowls. They spend the night dancing together in celebration of Halloween until a group of Trick-or-Treaters interrupt their party and scare them away. REVIEWHalloween is one of my favorite seasons. I love all of the mythical creatures and fun people can have with dressing up and pretending to be someone or something else for the night. This book immediately grabbed my attention because it included all of those mythical creatures, but it also provided Spanish translations for them. The text was also rhyming, which added a nice sing-song element like you were telling a spooky story. For example, there is a sentence that reads, "Los gatos black with eyes of green, cats slink and creep on Halloween." There was also an element of humor that was added when the monsters were all scared away by the kids on Halloween. I feel like students would definitely enjoy this while learning about some traditional symbols and creatures associated with the holiday.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four-line rhymes on each page talk about various spooky creatures. I love the way Montes seemlessly integrates Spanish words, and I also love Morales's illustrations, which manage to be spooky without being scary. Nicely done.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Halloween book, a little spooky. The story is told in the form of a poem, mostly English with a few Spanish words thrown in. The illustrations are perfect.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is a pretty dark picture book. It is all about Halloween, but it is about skeletons, the dead, and tombs. Very scary, I am not sure if all kids would enjoy it. But, the think that I do like is that it includes Spanish words right along with the English words. This would be a great way to introduce some Spanish vocabulary to young children. I also like that there is a Spanish dictionary in the back of the book, explaining what the Spanish words mean in English.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: this is a story about halloween and what really happens halloween night. The dead come to life, the pumpkins hop up and down, there are scary sounds, and when the children rap on the door the monsters hide because everyone knows the children are the scariest ones of all. Genre: poetryMedia: acrylic paint
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The rich illustrations and holiday-themed story make this a great read-aloud candidate for a third grade classroom. The book is mainly in English, with some vocabulary words in Spanish: perfect for a bilingual classroom or an introduction to the Spanish language, but also good for sparking a conversation with emergent readers about using contextual clues to figure out unfamiliar vocabulary. The story has spooky elements (witches, haunted houses, etc) but is not too scary for young children.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This poem talks about lots of different things that surround Halloween such as vampires, ghosts, black cats etc. The book describes each of these things as coming to a Halloween party and then being scared away by trick or treaters. It also includes spanish words for some of the things talked on each page. It has enough English surrounding the phrase that it makes it easier to guess what the Spanish word means.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Told in rhyming couplets, this deliciously creepy Halloween picture-book also incorporates a healthy dose of Spanish words (as seen in the title itself) into the narrative, making it something quite unique, when it comes to holiday fare for younger readers. "Los gatos black" slink and creep, "Las brujas" fly before the moon, and "Los muertos" rise from their graves, all converging upon a haunted mansion for a Halloween celebration. But when the truly frightening ones - "Los Niños" - appear, the creatures of the night decamp with speed...Although there is a glossary at the rear, the narrative of Los Gatos Black on Halloween is so cleverly constructed, that there is little need for it. The English equivalent of each Spanish word quickly follows it, making this a story that both entertains and instructs. The illustrations, by Yuyi Morales - whose bedtime book, Little Night, was so beautiful - really capture the creepy appeal of the tale. This is just a fabulous Halloween book, with visual and verbal scares aplenty, and I thank my friend Chandra for bringing it to my attention!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is a lively Halloween poem that introduces the reader to an array of themed Spanish words that will get anyone into the mood for Halloween. Morales again in this book adds pictures to the unknown Spanish words so one knows what the text is saying. The pictures are on the darker side to add to the spooky element of Halloween. With each page more depth and detail is added to the pictures telling its own story of Halloween. Every time I look again in the book I see new details that I didn’t see the first time I read the book. In the Classroom: Introduction to Spanish, storytelling, Halloween tale