It's hard to integrate these illustrations visually - how can the artist who so readily evokes the arching of a cat or the stomping of an elephant be the same artist who foists upon us these blocky, unconvincing children? Carle's kicking donkey bursts with so much muscular energy that the reader almost wants to duck to avoid a hoof to the head and the child that accompanies the donkey is all rectangles - not a muscle, or even a curve, in sight here. His hair is somewhat less pleasing than his fabricsĪnd then somewhere, way, way down at the bottom of the hierarchy comes "Human face and figure." It is always jarring to me to compare his beautifully articulated animals that practically roar and pop off the page with his blocky, oddly proportioned human bodies and his primitive human faces.īut it is especially jarring in From Head to Toe, in which every page pairs an animal with a human figure. The book itself says it's for ages up to 4 but I think the bilingual edition is great for any age.Īnyone who reads a lot of Eric Carle's books cannot fail to notice that there is a hierarchy of things that turn Carle on:ġ. Personally I found this to be a valuable tool for learning, for both myself and my kids, and I plan on buying a copy for my grandson to add to his collection. For instance "Claro que sí" is a phrase that roughly means "Of course", not "I can do it", which is what the English version says. I will also note, it is not a verbatim translation. Even with my intermediate knowledge of Spanish, I didn't know some of the words-mostly the verbs and a few body parts-and some of the phrases were worded differently than I'd expect. Without a decent amount of Spanish vocabulary, it would be difficult to read this, so it's best read by someone who knows the language well enough to know proper pronunciation. I will say that it's not for Spanish beginners though.
Another gem from Eric Carle, the bilingual edition is really good if you want to learn a lot of Spanish words and phrases common to native speakers, but might not get taught in class. This book is about animals and parts of the body.
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