La Princesa and the Pea
La Princesa and the Pea was a fun twist on the classic story! It was based off of the Peruvian culture and included Spanish words throughout, which made for a unique bilingual read!
The plot of La Princesa and the Pea follows a prince desperate for a wife. The only problem is, his mother doesn't exactly approve of many girls. As you may have guessed, the prince's mother decides to place a pea under twenty mattresses in order to test if this girl was fit to marry her son. To the queen's surprise, the girl reported hardly having been able to sleep the night before. She had passed the test! After the two get married, it is revealed that the prince had put rocks and pitchforks in her bed to ensure that she would get a terrible night's sleep (super romantic, right? 😂). And in the end, they have twenty children together.
This book was so cute! I would for sure use this in my classroom! It was a very short and easy read with super expressive and unique illustrations (hence the Pura Belpré award...woohoo!). Each page had rhyming, and a handful of Spanish words were sprinkled throughout the book. Definitely a great book to read to learn some basic Spanish vocabulary!
As for the age group that La Princesa and the Pea is aimed at, I would say anywhere from preschool to lower elementary would be perfect! Like I mentioned before, there are only a couple of sentences on each page and the words rhyme, so that makes it ideal for younger kids! Since there is a foreign language factor, I would make sure to either go over some of the vocabulary in the book before reading it aloud or translate while reading.
Because La Princesa and the Pea is a bilingual book, it presents the perfect opportunity to do a little unit about Peru or the Spanish language! Students could create regular or even pictorial flashcards for the vocabulary in the book (for example: jardín on one side and a picture of a garden on the other side). Older kids could do a research project about Peru and create a poster displaying important elements of their culture. From my experience, kids love learning different languages and impressing family members with their ability to speak! Plus, it's definitely a useful skill to have here in Texas where Spanish is becoming more and more prevalent!
P.S. I read this book to my first-grade cousin and she was loving pointing out the guinea pigs and grumpy cat lurking around on all the pages! The illustrations definitely caught her attention!
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