I liked this book for two reasons. The first reason I enjoyed this book is the story, it was about a little lizard that didn't give up even though everyone else did. She, the lizard, was able to bring hope to the people and animals. the way Alma was able to write and retell this story was just well done. This was also a bilingual book which was a plus with the writing aspect. it has one passage in English and one in Spanish.
The second reason I enjoyed this book was the illustrations. Not only did they depict this folktale and what the lizard was doing, but also the type of illustration Felipe Davalos did was amazing. His illustration was something like aztec or mayan.

This folktale by Alma Flor Ada was about a lizard who relentlessly searches for the sun when is suddenly disappears. Teaching the moral of tenacity and determination. The book was very organized, every two pages are set up the same way; the left page has a paragraph in English and the right page has the same paragraph in Spanish. I really enjoyed this book for several reasons.
The first reason is because every two pages shared beautiful illustrations by Felipe Dávalos that filled both pages and illustrated both the story and the tone very well. In the beginning of the book when the sun disappears and the author describes a setting of sadness and darkness; “Everything was dark. The people were cold; the children had stopped playing; the birds had stopped singing. All the people and animals were worried and afraid.“ While the sun is gone all of the pictures use darker shades and blueish-black backgrounds. After the lizard finds the sun and it returns to the sky, the pages all use lighter shades and bright yellow backgrounds to match the lighter tone of the book.
I also really liked the authors note in the back of the book. She gives a little background about the story and explains how it related to herself. She explains that the folktale is centered around the indigenous people of the Americas and how they liked to create fun, beautiful stories to explain the natural world around them. She also notes that the English and Spanish paragraphs represent the coexistence of the two languages in the United States today. Lastly, she explains the importance of the book to her and that “in [her] homeland there were many lizards and [she] always found them fun, but above all because [she] value tenacity.”
Through a short, fun, and colorful story, and the authors note at the end, Ada was able to give her audience and little insight into the culture and the importance of folktales. I think she did a great job! ( )

This book is about a little lizard who doesn’t give up searching for the sun when it disappears. One reason I especially liked this book is because it is written in both Spanish and English on the pages. This can potentially be a very helpful text for students who are ELL, because on one page the entirety of the text is written in English and directly on the next page the entire thing is written in Spanish. I really appreciated the illustrations and the Mexican artwork throughout. While I think this book would be a great addition to any classroom, I do think it is a tad long and would be appropriate students learning Spanish words rather than reading it aloud during story time. The main message in this story is to advise readers to never give up no matter what. ( )

In a folktale illustrated with Aztec-Mexican artwork, the sun falls asleep behind a rock, blanketing the world in darkness, and is discovered by a faithful lizard, who, with the help of the emperor, encourages the sun to wake up.

In this folktale the sun hides from the earth. Lizard, Woodpecker and the King ask the sun to come back, the people will do wonderful dances in his honor.

The lizard rests on hot rocks in the sun to this day remembering when they helped to find sun and return him to his rightul place.

Classroom Use: I would use this for an author study of Alma Flor Ada. ( )