listened to this book on audio CD and it was fabuloso! Robert Ramirez brings so much life to the text, especially for an "anglo" like me.
The story comes from the Andes Mountains, Barbara Knutson spent several years living in Lima, Peru, and experienced firsthand several different oral versions of the story, Here she has assembled all the great elements of a trickster tale, in particular a small, weak hero in the form of a guinea pig named Cuy, Although guinea pigs play a different role in Andean culture, children will certainly be able to connect to the animal as a character due to guinea pig's pet status in our society.
Cuy, a funny guy, uses his innocent persona to outwit the Fox and a farmer, Ramirez's characterization of the comical elements had me laughing out loud, The Spanish phrases in the text were no problem with the recorded version, but nonSpanish speaking children may stumble at those points, The audio recording also helped me connect to the oral tradition behind this type of story, I read it again, on my own, with the picture book, and it was good, but whenver I paused and let Ramirez's performance come to the surface in my mind, the whole experience changed for the better.
For young readers, a rich listening to this story would motivate them to read the book themselves, with dramatization with friends a natural followup, The book lends itself to rereading, which would help students develop their fluency as well, if they were reading it aloud with partners, I would recommend this as an essential component for a study of trickster tales with your students, Cuy is a guinea pig who just wants to eat his fill of sweetgrass without being bothered by the worrisome fox, Tio Antonio, But this trickster lives up to his name and outwits the fox over and over again, But then, when Cuy comes up with his best plan yet, he it outsmarted by the farmer, How is the little guinea pig going to get out of this one
Super, super cute, The illustrations are bright, colorful and simple, The story is fun and silly I especially loved the "disguise" that Cuy comes up with, The Author's Note and Spanish words to learn at the end are another treat, Fun! Cuy the Guinea Pig is out looking for something delicious to eat when he sees Tio Antonio the Fox coming after him, quite possibly also looking for something delicious to eat.
Cuy goes from trying to escape the fox to out foxing the fox several times, so much so that the fox goes out of his way to avoid Cuy, no matter how delicious he may seem.
This is a tradition tale the author learned while living in Peru which has been told many different ways throughout the years, The author has combined the different versions and has come up with an entertaining version that is timeless, Book level:.
Lexile:
Fountas and Pinnell: N
Book summary: In this Andes folktale, a clever guinea pig repeatedly outsmarts the fox that wants to eat him for dinner.
Genre: Multicultural. This folktale provides a look into the culture of the Andes community in South America and includes language and phrases tied to that culture,
Mentor trait:
Word choice the author uses lively verbs, adverbs and adjectives to develop the story and keep the reader's attention, The reader is anxious to read on, Instead of said, Barbara Knutson used snarled,
growled, yelped, warned, barked, howled, sighed, and gasped,
Classroom Integration/Minilessons/Content Connections:
This book can be used as a mentor text for word choice, As you read this book aloud, students can identify and discuss her word choice when it comes to verbs, They could write or be given sentences that use ordinary verbs and be asked to revise it by changing the verbs to more interesting ones, Practice on using of a thesaurus would be accomplished here,
Other lessons ideas include: finding examples of alliteration feasted on fresh
alfalfa, licking his lips, writing their own trickster tale using different animals as the trickster and the “tricked” animal multiple modes could be used for this activity and writing a journal entry about which animal you would like to have as a friend, the guinea pig or the fox.
Tell why.
The illustrations in this folk tale are really captivating, stylized and thick black lines, The lesson we learn isn't what one would expect, We have our trickster guinea pig and gullible fox as our main characters whose roles are very well played throughout the plot, I would like to use this one on one for lapsits because of the lesson involved, Having the ability to sit and think through this book would be more beneficial, S and I both enjoyed this book about Cuy, a trickster guinea pig in the Andes Mountains, It had a lot in common with all trickster tales hence, uh, it being labeled a trickster tale, but some of the actual tricks were ones I don't remember hearing in other stories.
This was fun as a read aloud for theyearold, but I also think it would be a good one to use for the classes I teach at work, so I'll need to try to rememeber it.
Cuy, that ingenious guinea pig outsmarts the fox every time, Cuy tricks him by claiming the sky is falling, the earth is on fire and finally making him believe the farmer tied him up because of 'love and roast chicken'.
He tells fox that the farmer tied him up because he wouldn't marry the farmer's daughter and eat roast chicken every day, Fox gladly takes his place and Cuy ties him up, The farmer is in for a surprise the next morning when fox is tied up, When the farmer hears the story from fox, he can't stop rolling with laughter, From that point on, fox stays far away from Cuy, This is a children's book that I read to my twin boys, My son's teacher read this book to him, and he really wanted the book, I had to order a copy of this book after seeing the cover of it, The cover and title is so cute, I found this story very cute and fun, The pictures are cute and very bright, My boys love this book, and I know it will be something I read to them a lot, The first reason I found this book is because of the beautiful cover, With bright colors emphasized by black outlining, it was so appealing, The story follows the usual structure of a trickster tale and while the back matter says in the Andes mostly the trickster is a grey fox, this time its a guinea pig, or “cuy”guinea pig in Spanish, mixed with the ancient languages of Quechua or Aymara what is spoken in the Andes.
Other Andean words are included in the story, like “pobrecito” poor little thing and “Que ridiculo” how ridiculous, The dear guinea pig finds himself in various scary situations, which he smoothly talks out of, tricking the fox time and again, Its a book to use for predicting, with lots of laughter at the fox who keeps believing that CUY again and again,/: What a cute little story! Cuy pronounced "KWEE" and means "Guinea Pig" the Guinea Pig outsmarts a fox and a farmer,
Amazon Book Description:
One day, high in the Andes Mountains, Cuy the Guinea Pig is searching for wild spinach to eat when Tío Antonio the Fox
comes in search of Cuy to eat! Tío Antonio thinks he s found dinner, but crafty Cuy has other plans.
Quickwitted Cuy fools Tío Antonio not once, but three times, Combining striking wood block artwork with an authentic South American voice, this sly trickster tale shows that clever thinking is key when you're outfoxing the fox, My students and I LOVE this trickster tale about a mischievous guinea pig who outwits a fox from eating him in comical ways, Highly recommend! I pull this out over Valentines for myth graders, There is really no romance, but I like to threaten them with it, In the end, this is such a great trickster tale,
Wait, the fox isn't the trickster It's a guinea pig Say whaaat
A sticky part reminiscent of Brer Rabbit shows up something similar appears in sitelinkAnansi Does The Impossible!: An Ashanti Tale too which makes me wonder just how prevalent sticky traps are in folklore.
There's a research paper I'd like to read,
Love the title, Year Published:
Awards: ALA Notable Book Award
Age Level:
This book is a folktale about a guinea pig who tricks the fox into doing various tasks for him.
Once you start reading the rest is very predictable, This would be a great story for young children to practice figuring out what will happen next, What really wins me over is that there's roast chicken in the title,
No, no. What really wins me over is the art, And that there's roast chicken in the title, And that it's all set in Peru well, the Andes Mountains! and has a cuy named Cuy! as its star, It's so beautiful!!
The story is verr nice: a blend of many familiar folktales that seem to have slipped from one culture to another, But what really kills me are the elements I've listed above,
This story could have used more roast chicken,
P. S. The best roast chicken I've ever had was in Peru, I've said it before and I'll say it again: that is what I'm having for my last meal,
A spunky freeranging guinea pig hero, an equally lovable, gullible villain and the happy mashup of several familiar folk tales make this gorgeously illustrated trickster tale a story worth repeated reenactment in the schoolyard with friends really!.
You can listen in on our chat about this book on our sitelink Just One More Book! Children's Book Podcast,
sitelink justonemorebook. com
This is a cute funny folktale about a guinea pig and a fox, In Peru, in the Andes Mountains was cuy a guinea pig, and Tio Antonio a fox, Tio Antonio wants to eat cuy several times, He fails at his attempts because he gets trapped in cuy's escape plan, He knows Tio Antonio wants to eat him and so drags him into his persuasive talk, Tio Antonio is naive to believe all Cuy's sayings, When he gets to a farm house he finds love with a human girl, She does not know Cuy loves her, He begans to eat up the alfalfa the farmer has, The farmer decides to set a trap for whoever is the alfalfa thief, The farmer knows its cuy and ties him up to a tree so he won't escape and eat him later that day, Well, as cuy is tied up Tio Antonio finds him, He wants to eat him but once again falls into cus's persuasive talk, He tells him that Florinda, the farmer's daughter wants to marry him but she eats roast chicken everyday and that he is a vegetarian, The fox believes him once again and ends up taking Cuy's place to marry the girl and supposedly eat roast chicken everyday, When the farmer heard Tio Antonio's make believe story, he told him he was fooled by the guinea pig, At the end, Tio Antonio learns his lesson, How many times we have believe many people over and over again, We trust they're worthy of trust but they fail us, We give them opportunities to redo their wrongings but we get dissapointed, We need to learn not to be naive and know when someone is saying the truth or not, People can loose our trust easily, While not for the little ones due to the length, this is an amazing book for schoolaged kids, I've used it many times on class visits with kids up through sixth grade, and it is always perfect, Granted, I'm an enthusiastic and energetic reader who is willing to really engage with the story, but it works! I love being able to use folktales, but this one really sets the standard.
Highly recommended. A question of translation:
Okay, so it looks like I read "Love and Roast Chicken," but what I really read was "Amor y Pollo Asado: Un Cuento Andino de Enredos y Engaños," a Spanish translation of Barbara Knutson's story by Judy Goldman and Wendy A.
Luftwhich, I think, is really the best way to read this story since it's of Andean origin, According to Knutson, "He oído y leído este cuento muchas veces en español: en un bello y antiguo libro boliviano, de la boca de un guía peruano en un pueblo en la montaña, en una revista boliviana para niños y de nuestro amigo Edwin Sulca, un tejedor peruano.
Nunca lo contaron de la misma forma dos veces!" I have heard and read this story in Spanish many times: in an old and beautiful Bolivian book, from the mouth of a Peruvian guide in a mountain town, in a Bolivian children's magazine, and from my friend, Edwin Sulca, a Peruvian weaver.
I never encountered the same version twice!"
Far be it from me to decry the translation of such a story a story from the oral tradition, a story already comprising multiple variants and adequately preserved in Spanish in a variety of locations into English, but for all of those same reasons, I believe reading this story in Spanish preserves something of the integrity of this tale.
Nuance, cultural geography, and untranslatable aspects of language like rhythm are all preserved in the Spanish version and serve to, in a way, transport the reader more fully to the Andes.
The fact that Knutson chose to write this story in English and leave the translation of it "back" into Spanish to others is rather unfathomable to me, Clearly she meant to make at least the plot of the story accessible to Englishspeakers, My point is that in my opinion some nonplotrelated but nevertheless integral aspects of the storyespecially since it is oral, easily changed, and culturally richdo not fully translate,
I believe that translation and crosspollination are generally good things however, learning another language aids crossculturalpollination rather than hindering it, If you don't read Spanish, by all means pick up "Love and Roast Chicken," but if you do, I would recommend this version more, .