Juana and Lucas

Juana and Lucas by Juana Medina

Juana is an elementary school aged girl with a big personality.  Her favorite things include her dog Lucas, her favorite Aunt, drawing, reading, brussel sprouts and Astroman.  She embraces life with all her heart and isn’t shy about sharing the good and the bad.  Her big problem/challenge in this book is struggling to learn English.  You see, Juana lives in Columbia and speaks Spanish.

I love that about this book.  I love that it features a child from another culture that children in the U.S.A may or may not be familiar with.  I love that it teaches a little bit about Columbia in the book and makes it real for small children.  I also love that all throughout the book there is a plethora of spanish words in italics right in the middle of sentences.   It helps that this book is in first person narrative so that it feels natural in the book.  The spanish words are placed strategically so that non-spanish speaking children who read this book can practice decoding and context clue skills (which are so important to reading success) to decipher what the definition of the word is.  This makes this little book a wonderful educational tool both in language, culture, and reading skills.  Love it!

I also adore the fact that this easy chapter book is full of color illustrations on every single spread!  So essentially this book can be considered one giant picture book!  This structure makes this book a great transition chapter book for children with the reading skills to read chapter books, but are hesitant to make the transition from picture books.  All-in-all this is such a wonderful read that I went through quickly as an adult and completely enjoyed.

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