¡Vamos! Let's Cross the Bridge
Colorful tale of crossing border bridge has Spanish vocab.
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that ¡Vamos! Let's Cross the Bridge, by Pura Belpré winning author-illustrator Raul the Third, is a fun picture book with a comic-book vibe. Vividly colored by Elain Bay, this is the third installment in this bilingual series. A lively follow up to ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat, this time Little Lobo and Bernabé are back in this joyful story about coming together and celebrating community. As in the previous books, Little Lobo (a wolf) and his dog, Bernabé, navigate life along the border and immerse the reader in Latino culture and Spanish vocabulary that's sprinkled throughout.
Each page contains a wealth of details and pictures, numerous speech bubbles that help move the story along, many items labeled in Spanish, plus tons of simple Spanish phrases. A useful glossary with English translation is included at the end of this book. Here you'll also find a note from the author explaining his ties to the US/Mexican border and sharing anecdotes from his own childhood when he used to cross the border bridge over the Río Grande regularly.
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What's the Story?
¡VAMOS! LET'S CROSS THE BORDER is a festive story that shares what it's like to cross the bridge from one country to another -- for work, play, or to visit family -- and how to creatively pass the time while waiting on the bridge. This time Little Lobo and his dog Bernabé have a new truck and they are using it to carry party supplies over the bridge with their pals El Toro and La Oink Oink. With some going this way, others going that way, back and forth on foot and on bicycles, in cars and trucks, the bridge is an incredibly busy place with many different types of vehicles. The line to cross over the bridge is long and everyone on the bridge is stuck. How will they pass the time? Eventually everyone comes together for an epic party on the bridge, and Little Lobo and his friends discover that so long as you have good friends and good music, you can have a party anywhere.
Is It Any Good?
This festive and engaging, jam-packed, comic-like picture book includes tons of Spanish vocabulary on each page. Each vibrant illustration in ¡Vamos! Let's Cross the Bridge is filled with a busy landscape and tons of scenery to explore. It's as if Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go gets a Mexican American makeover and includes cultural references such as Cantinflas, El Chavo del Ocho's barrel, tuna-fruit vendors, T-shirts displaying El Paso's area code, lucha libre costumes, charro outfits, and the Juárez X, just to name a few.
This series' iconic illustration style is enhanced by illustrator Elain Bay’s rich colors and beautifully delivers the vibrant spirit of the border towns. It's the most colorful of the three books in the Vamos series. Kids will have fun discovering new illustrations and missed details during repeated reading and will want to read this book again and again to discover even more. A great book for families to read together, no matter if they're bilingual or practicing a new language!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what it might be like to cross over a bridge into a new country, like the main characters do in ¡Vamos! Let's Cross the Bridge. Have you ever traveled to a new country? How did you get there? How might the experience be different if the characters were traveling by plane (or even boat)?
Read through this book and identify things like foods that you might enjoy in your own everyday life. What are some of your favorite foods? Is there a new food you'd like to try? Where could you find these foods in your hometown?
Latino culture is depicted through lively illustrations about life at the border. What culture does your family identify with? What kind of places, foods, people, might you find along your country's border? Would the two sides look different or similar?
Book Details
- Author: Raul the Third
- Illustrator: Raul the Third
- Genre: Picture Book
- Topics: Adventures, Book Characters, Friendship
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Vesify
- Publication date: October 12, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 4 - 7
- Number of pages: 48
- Available on: Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Kindle
- Last updated: December 8, 2021
Our Editors Recommend
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¡Vamos! Let's Go to the Market!
Jam-packed, comics-like tale has tons of Spanish vocabulary.
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¡Vamos! Let's Go Eat!
Delectable food truck journey has tons of Spanish vocab.
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Our Celebración!
Festive rhyming book weaves in Spanish words.
For kids who love Latino stories and bilingual books
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