Great retelling of the original poem with new multi-cultural details. Primarily English with a good mix of easy to understand Spanish. ( )

There are two reason why I like the story ’Twas Nochebuaena. One reason I enjoyed the story is because of the language used throughout the book. The author incorporated spanish words throughout the book. “ ’Twas nochebuena and all through our casa, every creature was kneading tamale masa,” The book discusses Spanish Christmas traditions while incorporating the spanish language. At the end of the book, there is a glossary with the spanish terms and there meaning. The incorporation of the spanish language throughout the text helps the reader connect more with the culture.
Another reason why I enjoyed this book is because the characters were realistic. The children in the story were really excited for the holiday, and that is something that children can relate to. Even if the child does not celebrate Christmas, teachers can relate the excitement that the children in the story felt to other holidays. The characters in the story are surrounded by friends and family. This book can be used to discuss traditions that children have with their friends and family.
The big idea of this story is that Christmas Eve is full on traditions for this family. Throughout the story, the family has a fiesta, they go to church, and they open gifts. The book talks about traditional foods that the family eats, and ways they celebrate the holiday. The main idea of traditions can be explored throughout the classroom using this book. ( )

The story, ‘Twas Nochebuena, is centered around a Spanish family celebrating Christmas. Christmas festivities are an all day event for this traditional Spanish family. The family begins by making traditional Spanish meals with relatives, then attend the town parade, and go to late night mass before opening their presents. The central message of the story is, even though some cultures may celebrate holidays in different ways, their traditions have a meaning just like everyone else’s. ( )

I liked this book for two reasons. First, I liked how the book contained some key vocabulary words in Spanish,instead of English. This made the writing engaging to the readers and helped them learn words from another language by having a glossary of Spanish terms in the back. In addition, I liked how the illustrations show connections to the text, especially on pages 3 and 4 where the objects described by the Spanish glossary are there to connect with. ( )

This book is about a Christmas Story that is told in the culture of Spanish. The book goes on the adventure of how a family prepares for Christmas. The family prepares the food, decorate the house, and how the people of the town travel from house to house to celebrate. I really enjoyed this book because some of my ancestors are from Spain and I wonder if this is how they celebrated Christmas many years ago. This tradition and culture in this book is very huge. When reading the book, I could feel the excitement that the young girl had on Christmas. ( )