My Dad taught us to wrestle a little bit when we were kids.
He wrestled all through high school,
and has an area on both legs, from his ankle to his mid calf,
that has no hair, from ripping off the tape after wrestling.
He went to college for one semester so he could wrestle on the college team,
but was kicked off when they discovered he wasn’t going to classes.
He didn’t really teach us any moves;
he just played around with us.
I do remember him laughing at me though,
saying I was all elbows,
and it would be hard to pin me,
because I move too much.
I think I’d be a wrestler like Nino actually.
Instead of relying purely on my physical prowess (or lack there of!)
I would use the things around me and my brains 🙂
If, you know, I ever have to wrestle a monster.
Totally hypothetical situation 🙂
Title: Nino Wrestles the World
Published by: Roaring Brook Press, 2013
Written by: Yuyi Morales
Illustrated by: Yuyi Morales
Word Count: 232
Pages: 36
In one word: Magical
In one sentence: Nino wrestles many formidable foes, but which ones can he not conquer?
Favorite pages:
Likes:
Oh I love the imagination of Nino. What boy doesn’t imagine this?
I love the trading cards, or what seem like trading cards, on the endpapers. They describe each of the monsters that Nino faces off against.
Such great typography for the sound effects!
Awesome use of spanish and help for people who can’t speak it (great phonetic descriptions of how to say the words)
I adore how his sisters are the ones that he can’t defeat. True sibling rivalry and love at its best 🙂
The colors are so bright. This book is SO FUN.
Learns:
Infuse a little of what you were like as a kid into your stories (I heard Yuyi talk about this, and she was terrified of these monsters when she was a kid. I can’t find the notes but I’m looking for them!)
Again, design is a big deal. It’s what makes this book SO FUN!
Bilingual books are RAD! I’m hoping to get some published some day 🙂
What did you read today?
Gathering up prizes from my bookshelf…I’ll announce what I’ve got for you guys tomorrow, and winners on Friday! Thank you SO MUCH for reading and playing along! I’ve had fun making these posts and sometimes have had to get them in just in the nick of time, but I know I learn a lot by dissecting picture books and I hope you do too 🙂
I read this one last year. Managed to check it out from the library. I was very glad for the help with the pronunciation as I am not bilingual (although I live with someone who speaks more than 3 languages).
According to GoodReads I’ve read 34 books so fart this month, although not all were picture books. I found a few more library books, so “Quest” might not get read until Friday.