Grandma's Pear Tree, El peral de Abuela

Grandma's Pear Tree/El peral de Abuela

written by Suzanne Santillan

illustrated by Atilio Pernisco

Jessie has un problema...and it is getting worse by the moment! His pelota has gotten stuck up in Abuela's tree. But when he asks for help, everyone in his familia seems to be too busy. They each give suggestions for getting it down, but when little Jessie tries them out, they just seem to make things worse. Will he ever get things right before his Abuela finds out? You will have to read it for yourself to find out! (And your kids will find the ending to be hilarious!)

My kids love this story not only for the storyline, but also for the way it is written. Stories that are repetetive in structure have countless benefits for children. They can:

• help beginning readers learn new words and build up confidence
• quickly engage the reader by inviting them to make guesses or predictions about the story
• teach sentence structure and other grammatical practices
• help a child learn a new language

Santillan does a great job capturing young minds with the rhythmic flow of this story. El peral de Abuela has text in English with embedded Spanish words. A glossary is included in the back to help with vocabulary. It is a great story for beginning bilingual families, as well as English language learners.

Published by Raven Tree Press, you can find additional free activities to complement the book on their website.