Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains Book

I listened to this book on audio CD and it was fabuloso! Robert Ramirez brings so much life to the text, especially for an "anglo" like me. The story comes from the Andes Mountains. Barbara Knutson spent several years living in Lima, Peru, and experienced first-hand several different oral versions of the story. Here she has assembled all the great elements of a trickster tale, in particular a small, weak hero in the form of a guinea pig named Cuy. Although guinea pigs play a different role in Andean culture, children will certainly be able to connect to the animal as a character due to guinea pig's pet status in our society. Cuy, a funny guy, uses his innocent persona to outwit the Fox and a farmer. Ramirez's characterization of the comical elements had me laughing out loud. The Spanish phrases in the text were no problem with the recorded version, but non-Spanish speaking children may stumble at those points. The audio recording also helped me connect to the oral tradition behind this type of story. I read it again, on my own, with the picture book, and it was good, but whenver I paused and let Ramirez's performance come to the surface in my mind, the whole experience changed for the better. For young readers, a rich listening to this story would motivate them to read the book themselves, with dramatization with friends a natural follow-up. The book lends itself to re-reading, which would help students develop their fluency as well, if they were reading it aloud with partners. I would recommend this as an essential component for a study of trickster tales with your students.