Summary
Marta is an ordinary girl who lives in an extraordinary place. The Jungle! She has such cool friends. From el insecto, el elefante, to la tortuga! She compares her size and characteristics to her animal friends. Until she encounters La serpiente! Marta needs to use her brain to figure out how to avoid la serpiente before she becomes lunch!
Theme(s):
Imagination, struggles against nature, and friendship
Personal Response
I overall loved reading this book. I thought it was a cute introduction to Spanish in the classroom. I noticed how the illustrator paid great attention to the child-like wonder of a child’s imagination. I felt like I was looking at a child’s description of the animals in these illustrations. I noticed Marta was a very clever girl who did not need anyone’s help to escape sticky situations in the jungle! I felt like I understood my eNL students more after reading this book. It also had a glossary!
Teaching Ideas
This connects well with celebrating our differences unit of Common Lit’s Grade 6 curriculum. It would be an excellent introductory mentor text for my lower kids to discuss what makes us unique. It’s easy to comprehend that Marta is bigger than an insect but smaller than an elephant. It also would work well with narrative writing and vocabulary as students begin writing pieces to describe themselves compared to local animals!
Recommended Reading Level
Birth-PreK, Grade 01, Grade 02, Grade 03, Grade 04, Grade 05, Grade 06
