(3) PS Illustrated by Santiago Cohen. Two kids take a trip to the zoo with their Spanish-speaking abuelita, who helps them count the animals. The main text is mostly in English with the numbers in both English and Spanish, making this a good choice for children learning to count. Digitally colored ink-line illustrations are in muted hues with strong, dark outlines.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(3) PS Illustrated by Santiago Cohen. A mother lovingly relates to her new baby all that happened "before you were here." The flowing narrative, sprinkled with Spanish words and phrases ("...you lived in mi barriguita, sleeping, eating, and growing..."), emphasizes the love of the extended family all awaiting baby's birth. The illustrations contain striking colors, simple shapes, and fluid dark lines. Glos.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(4) PS Illustrated by Santiago Cohen. This is a gentle, sanitized version of the familiar Old Testament story. Cohen's color-drenched illustrations in deep blues, greens, and browns are more engaging than the text's uninspired rhymes ("Then lightning flashed! / and thunder ROARED! / When all were in / God shut the door"). Lucy Cousins's Noah's Ark is a more successful book for the same age group.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 I'm Going to Read! series. This series features three levels of beginning reader texts: up to fifty words (level one), one hundred words (level two), and two hundred words (level three). The illustrations are consistently lively, the stories range from forced to adequate (Class Play, for more confident readers, is engaging). There are nine other spring 2005 books in this series. Review covers these I'm Going to Read! titles: A Class Play with Ms. Vanilla, Fish Wish, Go Away, Crows!, I'm Going to New York to Visit the Lions, Silly Pig, and Who Spilled the Milk?.

Reviewer: Barbara Barstow

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Santiago Cohen. Ten-year-old Rosa lives in a rural village outside Mexico City with her grandmother, her uncle, and her little brother. In a matter-of-fact, first-person narrative, she tells of eagerly awaiting the return of her mother, who has been working in New York City for three years to earn money for the family. Ziefert's unadorned story is brought to life by Cohen's remarkable, color-saturated, Bemelmans-like paintings. Glos.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2003