¡Este es el día! / This Is the Day! (Bilingual)

November 15, 2017
Preschool-K From its green-striped end pages on, this joyful book effusively celebrates life by focusing on events during one day, accompanied by the biblical reminder to Rejoice and Be Glad. The gifts of the day are all attributed to God, and the rhyming text adds positive energy to the carpe diem message. While the focus is on children of many ethnicities, backgrounds, and abilities, God's squawking, barking, and flapping creatures are also included. The children put on costumes, wheel around on bicycles, gobble up pancakes, and learn to stand tall and brave when facing new challenges. Multi-imaged pages are mixed with double-page spreads, and the language is as much fun as the illustrations, incorporating words like dilly, dally, dawdle, and tarry. The final message, to take the joy of the world and share it, is inspired by Psalm 118:24, and it can also be found in This Little Light of Mine (2005), illustrated by E. B. Lewis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)