"Bursting with imagination and creativity! Your kids will go loco for El Toro!" — Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
"In typical ¡Vamos! style, a vibrant world bursts to life on every page, filled with movement and a detailed host of cartoon characters, though text and images are simplified to accommodate beginning readers. Raúl offers a lesson in visual literacy, utilizing speech bubbles and panels in addition to traditional narration." — Booklist (starred review)
"Simple sentences and recognizable—yet entirely fresh and original—plot structures set up young readers for accomplishment. Visual and linguistic whirls and twirls match the fast-paced tempo of lucha libre, serving up dazzling Chicano English.... Reward[s] attentive eyes and ears with endless detail and inside jokes." — Horn Book (starred review)
"A generous touch of giddy surrealism continues to make Raúl the Third’s faunal milieu a destination, lovingly detailed in frenetic compositions and Bay’s SweeTart-hued digital colorization. Exercise and toilet cleaning are rarely this much fun." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
"As in the World of ¡Vamos! books, the creator, alongside colorist Elaine Bay, utilizes comics-style layouts and an eye-catching, lightly faded color palette.... lively banter and humorous illustrations make for an absorbing early reader." — Publishers Weekly
"The unstoppable Raúl the Third brings his border barrio to rip-roaring life with plenty of humor, embedded Spanish, and Chicano cultural references.... Comic-book and lucha libre fans alike will not tap out of this semibilingual smackdown." — Kirkus Reviews
2021-02-09
El Toro needs to train for his big lucha libre match, but all he wants to do is sleep!
Poor Kooky Dooky—¿Qué va hacer? What’s he going to do? This quirky, early-reader spinoff of the ¡Vamos! series follows exasperated trainer Kooky Dooky as he pulls all the stops to get and keep El Toro out of bed. How about a big breakfast? Nope. After a gigantic belch, the sluggish luchador nose-dives under the covers. The rooster lures his trainee out of the bed with smelly shoes and a promise to go easy. Finally the training program gets results: Obstreperous chickens are caught by hand—er, hoof; the unplugged mechanical bull is dominated; the “Spiked Piñatas of DOOM” are pulverized; junk cars are crushed; and abuelas are helped across the street. Todo es listo—all is ready. Today El Toro will obliterate The Wall (pun very much intended—one of The Wall’s fans sports a distinctive blond ’do and orange skin). The unstoppable Raúl the Third brings his border barrio to rip-roaring life with plenty of humor, embedded Spanish, and Chicano cultural references. Colorist Bay’s creative enhancement of Raúl’s detail-rich frames continues their energetic collaboration. Action explodes throughout, though readers may be disappointed by the abrupt ending. In the simultaneously publishing Tag Team, El Toro and La Oink Oink team up to clean the arena following their thrashing of Donny Dollars and the Bald Águila.
Comic-book and lucha libre fans alike will not tap out of this semibilingual smackdown. (Early reader. 4-8)