Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes / Los perros mágicos de los volcanes

by Manlio Argueta, Elly Simmons (Illustrator), Stacey Ross (Translator)

Overview

Whenever Salvadoran people gather to tell stories, someone will have a story about the magic dogs called cadejos.

Whenever Salvadoran people gather to tell stories, someone will have a story about the magic dogs called cadejos. There are many stories about how the cadejos mysteriously appear at night to protect people from danger. MAGIC DOGS OF THE VOLCANOES is Manlio Argueta's original story about these famous folkloric animals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892391295
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	06/03/1997
Edition description:	Bilingual Edition: English & Spanish
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	648,816
Product dimensions:	8.25(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Language:	Spanish
Lexile:	AD630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Manlio Argueta is one of El Salvador's greatest living authors. In 1977 he received Latin America's most prestigious literary award, the Casa de las Americas Prize for Caperucita en la Zona Roja. He is also the author of One Day of Life (Vintage/Random House: 1983) and Cuzcatlan Where the Southern Sea Beats (Vintage/Random House: 1987). Argueta makes his home in San Jose, Costa Rica and travels frequently throughout the Americas This is his first book for children.

Elly Simmons is an internationally-exhibited painter. Her first picture book for Children's Book Press, Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes by Manlio Argueto, was highly praised for its rich colors and magnificent imagery. She lives with her family in Lagunitas, California.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 3-- For generations, the cadejos , wolflike, magical animals, have cared for the people who live at the foot of the volcanoes. But then the landowner decides to do away with them in the hopes of making the campesinos harder working, and he sends soldiers made out of lead to kill them. In desperation the cadejos call upon their great-great grandparents, the volcanoes, who defeat the soldiers, and, by extension, the landowner. In this engagingly told dual-language story from El Salvador, the original Spanish text is much smoother and more dynamic than is the English translation, which misses some of the humor and clever turns of speech that grace Arguenta's narrative form. However, the translation is able and reads aloud well enough to hold the attention of young listeners. Simmons's illustrations are in keeping with the folkloric tone. Large, bright, and primitive-looking, they have some of the mass and volume of Orozco's work. Paired with Jane Anne Volkmer's Song of the Chirimia (Carolrhoda, 1990), this opens listeners to the folklore of Central America in an attractively illustrated, accessible form. --Ann Welton, University Child Development School, Seattle

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