Module 5: Maria had a Little Llama/María Tenía una Llamita

Module 5: Maria had a Little Llama/María Tenía una Llamita

APA Reference of Book: Dominguez, A. (2013). Maria had a little llama/María tenía una llamita . New York, NY: Henry Holt.

Summary: This is a bilingual version of Mary Had a Little Lamb, in which the main character, Maria, lives in Peru and has a pet llama instead of a lamb. He shows his affection for Maria by following her to school, which is a distraction for the school children. The teacher makes the llama go outside, where he patiently waits for Maria to get out of school. In the end, the readers see how much Maria and the llama love each other.

Impressions: This is an excellent retelling of Mary Had a Little Lamb that children will surely enjoy. The full spread illustrations are colorful, friendly, inviting, and detailed. Maria and some of the other members of the community wear traditional Peruvian attire and hats, and at the very end there is an illustration of a group of Peruvian musicians who are playing traditional folk instruments. This book is a good way to reinforce the original nursery rhyme, and can open up children’s minds to the possibilities that nursery rhymes and stories can be adapted and retold based on one’s imagination and cultural background.

Professional Review: “The familiar nursery rhyme underpins this peek into the landscape and culture of Peru. Dominguez's (Let's Go, Hugo) gouache-and-ink spreads portray a red-cheeked Maria and a llama with a curiously human face in cultivated mountain fields and a tiled-roofed village. Some spreads show novel combinations of traditional and modern life: Maria wears an Andean hat with earflaps, a heavy cape, and sandals, but her knapsack looks like that of any North American schoolchild. Each line of the rhyme appears with Spanish text below it ("Why does the llama love Maria so?"/¿Por qué la llama le quiere tanto a María?"), and even readers unfamiliar with Spanish can probably decode a few nouns and verbs. As a bonus, the pages contain lots of visual information about Peruvian village life--the local market, the school, a traditional band-but Maria's story takes center stage. She's a gentle reminder that you don't have to be an English speaker to be a nursery-rhyme hero. Likely to be of special interest to bilingual families and in elementary school classrooms.”

Maria had a little llama/María tenía una llamita [Review of the book Maria had a little llama/María tenía una llamita, by A. Dominguez]. (2013). Publishers Weekly, 260(21), 57. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2308/ehost/detail/detail?sid=3428501b-c724-43ea-b8da-5d917e4f9b3d%40sessionmgr4009&vid=8&hid=4107&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#AN=87803923&db=brd

Library uses: Teach children how to say the first line or two of Mary Had a Little Lamb in Spanish and a few other languages such as German, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Tagalog (Filipino).