Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale in Unknown Books?

From the Bookshelf of Unknown Books? - Let's Read Them Club!…

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale

Carmen Agra Deedy,

Michael Allen Austin (Illustrator)

Start date: March 1, 2012

Finish date: March 31, 2012

Discussion leader: Ronyell

Why we're reading this: Winner of the Picture Book March read for "Animal" Themed picture books discussion.…more
[close] Winner of the Picture Book March read for "Animal" Themed picture books discussion.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

May 28, 2010 Ronyell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fairy-tale-romance, read-in-2010, animal-books, children-s-book, my-blog-reviews, cuban-books, summer-100-book-challenge-2010, picture-book, fairy-tales-folktales, pura-belpre-honor

鈥淢artina the Beautiful Cockroach鈥� is a Pura Belpre Honor Book by Carmen Agra Deedy along with gorgeous illustrations by Michael Austin and it is about how a young and beautiful cockroach named Martina tries to find a good husband by following her Cuban grandmother鈥檚 advice in spilling coffee on her suitor鈥檚 shoes. 鈥淢artina the Beautiful Cockroach鈥� is a beautiful Cuban folktale that everyone who loves books about bugs will definitely appreciate.

Carmen Agra Deedy has done a superb job at writing t 鈥淢artina the Beautiful Cockroach鈥� is a Pura Belpre Honor Book by Carmen Agra Deedy along with gorgeous illustrations by Michael Austin and it is about how a young and beautiful cockroach named Martina tries to find a good husband by following her Cuban grandmother鈥檚 advice in spilling coffee on her suitor鈥檚 shoes. 鈥淢artina the Beautiful Cockroach鈥� is a beautiful Cuban folktale that everyone who loves books about bugs will definitely appreciate.

Carmen Agra Deedy has done a superb job at writing this story about a young cockroach鈥檚 attempts in finding the perfect husband. Carmen Agra Deedy makes the story hilarious and creative at the same time as the reactions that each of the suitors give to Martina after she spills the coffee on them is extremely hilarious and amazing as the suitors get easily angry at Martina, not knowing full well about how Martina cleverly tries to find the perfect husband by their behavior and I think that the way that Martina tries to find her perfect husband by testing their personalities is a stroke of genius since I have never heard anyone try to find their perfect mate by testing their temper (which makes me think about doing this just to test their personalities). Michael Austin鈥檚 illustrations are extremely beautiful and exaggerated at the same time as Martina is drawn to be extremely beautiful with her fluttering eyes and her smooth figure and Michael Austin has also shown comical sides to the illustrations as Martina鈥檚 suitors look enormous and out of place and they always wear a cocky expression on their faces which goes along nicely with their personalities.

鈥淢artina the Beautiful Cockroach鈥� is a truly brilliant book about how respecting your elders can help you in your most dire situation and about what true romance is all about and many children who love Cuban folktales and bugs will definitely love this book. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the language might be difficult for smaller children to understand.

Review is also on: ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2008 Krista the Krazy Kataloguer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-pura-belpre, read-childrens-books, read-folktales-traditional-lit

What a delightful story! I'm going to spill coffee on the shoes of any potential husbands I may come across. Great idea! I love Michael Austin's illustrations, especially the picture when she's meeting Perez the mouse and her antennae are curled in the shape of a heart. So cute! I highly recommend this Pura Belpre honor book! ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2010 Kathy marked it as to-read

Shelves: children, wishlist

Nov 28, 2012 Xiri marked it as to-read

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls

欧宝娱乐

From the Bookshelf of Unknown Books? - Let's Read Them Club!…

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

What Members Thought

Unknown Books? - Let's Read Them Club!