MARTA! BIG & SMALL
Author: Jen Arena
Illustrator: Angela Dominguez
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: August 2016
This concept book teaches both opposites and simple vocabulary words—in English and Spanish. “Marta is una niña… / …an ordinary girl.” She is “grande” to a bug but “pequeña” to an elephant, “lenta” to a horse but “rápida” to a turtle, “tranquila” to a lion but “ruidosa” to a rabbit. All is well until she’s up against a snake who finds her “sabrosa” (tasty); on a Marta-free spread that follows, the offstage narrator frets, “Marta? ¿Dónde estás?” Readers are quickly reassured of the girl’s safety (she has skittered up a tree—“Phew!”), but was there ever really any doubt about the resourcefulness of this “ingeniosa” child? Like Marta, with her matching purple backpack, shorts, and sneakers, the art is energetic and no-frills, at least until the wink at the end when Marta is depicted sitting before paper, paint, and a brush that has just slithered across the page: was the snake a product of her imagination? The story concludes with a glossary, likely to be followed by requests to hear the book de nuevo. Nell Beram
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