Kitchen Dance Book

A little girl wakes in the night to mysterious, inviting noises. She rouses her brother, and they sneak downstairs and peek into the kitchen. To their amazement and delight, their parents are dancing and singing---"?Como te quiero! Oh, how I love you!" ---as they clean up and put food away. Mama and Papa discover the two kids and sweep them into the embrace of a family dance. Slowly, the song changes to a lullaby. . . the children close sleepy eyes. . . then Mama and Papa tuck them into bed again. The story reads like poetry. The art moves from subdued tones to hot tropical colors and back again. And as you turn the pages, you can almost hear the music---changing from a pop ballad to a hot tango to a cozy lullaby. All in all, it's a perfect bedtime book, with a satisfying hugs-and-kisses ending.

Publishers Weekly

Drawn from their beds by noises downstairs, the narrator and her little brother, Tito, peer into the kitchen to find that their parents have turned dinner cleanup into a rambunctious, Latin-flavored song and dance number. Mama swishes her ruffled skirt and Papa croons into a wooden spoon ("¡Cómo te quiero! Oh, how I love you. Umm, hmm"). The performance reaches its peak with a flourish worthy of Fred and Ginger: "My mother twists, and my father catches her by the waist and bends her low," writes Manning (The Aunts Go Marching), mixing awe with incredulity. "There is silence for a moment." As the rounded, sculptural bodies of the couple move about the kitchen with humor and grace, the illustrations take on a cinematic sense of motion and space. This is Manning's most exuberant work yet, a winning tribute to happy feet and happy families. Ages 3-6. (Oct.)

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