How Happy I Would Be

Me gustaría tener  

by Alma Flor Ada

Surprise-filled illustrations awaken children’s imagination and inspire their creativity.  Viví Escrivá’s illustrations are superb.  

Author’s Note : To play with rhyme and to imagine unique situations give me joy, a joy I suspect many children share. Teachers have told me many times how much their students enjoy this book and how it motivates them to make their own books following the pattern. And in the bookshelf I have dedicated to collecting the books made by children and given to me as gifts, there are quite a few inspired by this book.

Reviews : School Library Journal : About Stories for the Telling : A charming series, illustrated with watercolor and pen-and-ink drawings. The stories are told in a humorous style and are enhanced throughout by Ada's gift for language and poetry. El Canto del mosquito / The Song of the Teene Tiny Mosquito. is the droll story of a frog who eats a mosquito and whose song then sounds like that of a mosquito. The frog is eaten by a fish, who then sings like a mosquito, etc. Una extraña vista / Strange Visitors is a humorous counting story of the days of the week in rhyme. Me gustaría  tener… / How Happy I Would Be… . . . lists the various things ``I would like to have . . .'' Again in a counting - book format, the desired items all turn out to be animals involved in unusual activities (e.g. two giraffes reading with glasses). ¿Quién nacerá aquí? / Who’s hatching Here?  ., in contrast to the others, is a science book. Rhyming riddles ask which animal will hatch from different eggs. The eggs are presented in their natural habitats; both illustrations and text hint at the answers.