Across cultures, folk stories and fairy tales hold many similarities. From the trickster to the princess to the fool, standard characters show up and have adventures that look much the same regardless of their origins. Juan Bobo is the familiar and popular fool in Puerto Rican folk tales. The author takes these traditional stories and rewrites them to be more fun and friendlier (the grown-ups are more patient than in the original stories and the story doesn't end with a wedding).

Montes does a nice job of bringing in Spanish vocabulary without lecturing. When Juan Bobo asks a question in Spanish, Don Pepe repeats it in English, making it easy to understand what he's saying without breaking the rhythm of the story. There is also a glossary of the Spanish words in the back of the book.

The illustrations are rich and saturated with color. Juan Bobo skips along smiling and appealing, his posture always realistic. (The illustrator says he found inspiration in his own 3-year-old.) In the background are details (like palm trees, mountains, and houses on stilts) that help readers get a sense of everyday life in the highlands of Puerto Rico.

Kids will love shaking their heads at Juan Bobo's ridiculous assumptions but will be pleased when he finds his happy ending in spite of himself.