Illustrator: Elivia Savadier
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Year: 2002
Interest Level: K-3
Reading Level: 2-3 for an English Spanish bilingual reader

I remember seeing this book when it first came out and I remember liking it a lot. I loved how the girl is proud to come from a multicultural home. Having that message in children's literature is important. I also think it's great to represent a child who comes from a mixed Latino and European background, because I do not see that often in children's books.

I decided to revisit the book for my multicultural children's lit class. Perhaps it's the difference of the beginning of my career in bilingual education and 10 years later, or perhaps it's reading this genre of books with a more critical eye, but when I read this book now, I am a little more concerned. I felt there was a little bit of a competition (though unintentional) between the European grandparents and the Mexican grandparents. For many of the events she did with her European (country never stated) grandparents, she did something similar on a bigger scale with her Mexican grandparents. On one hand, it puts the Mexican grandparents in a brighter light, which is less common for mainstream children's lit, but I don't understand why they could not do activities that were different. Watching a video of a circus and then seeing a circus in real life- what would compare? Then holding balloons and flying a homemade kite- what would compare? The girl in the story enjoys the time with both sets of grandparents, but I don't like how the Saturdays and domingos seem to be compared with each other.

I love the integration of English and Spanish in a way that the reader really needs to know both languages. There is not bilingual glossary. The Spanish is not thrown in here and there with a superficial "hola" or "gracias. I enjoy that. It validates children's ability to code switch in their homes without using "token" words for the sake of having them.

I think this book could definitely be used with younger grades that study "All About Me" and different kinds of families.

I Love Saturdays y Domingos by Alma Flor Ada, illustrated by Elivia Savadier is the tale of a child who recounts her weekends spent with her European-American grandparents on Saturdays, and her Mexican American Abuelito y Abuelita on Domingos (Sundays). Both sets of grandparents love their granddaughter very much. This book was another excellent choice of the Goodreads Picturebook Club.

A clever parallel storyline has the two sets of grandparents doing similar things with their grandchild, with the details told in English or Spanish. Both share activites involving the circus, fish and pets. Both share stories from the grandparents' pasts, and cooperate together to celebrate her birthday. The explanation and English translation of Las mananitas is included at the end of the book.

I enjoyed the compare and contrast nature of the story, with details such as the European-American grandparents preparing scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast while the Mexican-American grandparents make huevos rancheros. The overall impression is that the two cultures have some differences, yet people have more in common than some might think. Hispanic culture is nicely intergrated, particularly with the pinata at the birthday party plus singing both Happy Birthday and Las Mananitas.

Savadier's colorful watercolor illustrations are evocative of loving grandparents and a loving intergenrational, multi-ethnic family. The illustrations support the text.

I do wish that a glossary of Spanish terms had been provided to ensure careful translation of the dialog. There seems to be some competition between the grandparents giving the girl gifts and attention, though this may be unintentional. This is an excellent multicultural, biracial book for both classroom and library use. The book is highly recommended for school and library collections. Frankly I wish a lot of politicians and congressmen would read and understand this book the way children will.

For ages 4 to 8, intergenerational families, grandparents, birthdays, Hispanic culture, multicultural, bilingual, diversity, acceptance of differences, unity, and fans of Alma Flor Ada and Elivia Savadier.

Great story about a little girl and her grandparents, one set of whom is of European descent, the other being of Native American and Mexican origin. There are some Spanish words and phrases that are easily picked up with context clues and mirroring of English wording as the little girl recounts fun time spent with all her grandparents. Highly recommended.

A bilingual girl loves splitting her weekend with her grandparents: Saturdays with her Anglo father’s parents and Sundays with her Mexican-American mother’s parents. The book switches effortlessly between English and Spanish (although on a simple enough level that anyone can decipher) while describing how her grandparents are the same and different. Pura Belpre Award winner Alma Flor Ada has produced a lovely book for children and adults of all ethnicities to enjoy.

The girl narrator of this story likes Saturdays because she visits her father’s parents and Sundays because that’s when she visits her mother’s parents, and then for her birthday both sides of the family come together to celebrate.

I really wish there had been a glossary of Spanish words in the back of the book, or an English-Spanish & Spanish-English dictionary/translation, but I’m ambivalent about that, given that I figured out all but a couple Spanish words on my own, and my knowledge of Spanish is paltry. So, the story did an excellent job of making the Spanish word meanings clear, and I’ll assume the English words as well.

One side of this girl’s family is European-American, and the other is Mexican-American, and Native American too. Some family history is told via the grandparents’ telling stories about their backgrounds to their granddaughter.

This is a terrific book for children learning English or Spanish, for bilingual children, and for multi-cultural children.

But, the best part of this book is the story. It’s a sweet story about love between grandparents and grandchild; the affection shown transcends the cultural heritage of the family members. It’s a lovely family story, about a loved and loving little girl.

I thoroughly enjoyed the illustrations. I particularly loved the scenes with the girl and her grandparents’ pets. The colors used were incredibly pleasing to the eye. I loved the matching dresses at the end and I loved the girl’s favorite color too. The illustrations perfectly complemented the story.

A young girl celebrates her diverse family, and her multicultural heritage, in Alma Flor Ada's I Love Saturdays y Domingos, describing her Saturday visits with her father's parents - her European-American Grandma and Grandpa - and her Sunday (los domingos) visits with her mother's parents - her Mexican-American Abuelito y Abuelita. With activities and interests that mirror each other - sharing the history of their respective ancestors, playing with their pets, devising happy surprises for their favorite grandchild - the two sets of grandparents feature on facing pages of the book, allowing the narrator to switch back and forth between English, and a mixture of Spanish and English. The conclusion, in which both sets of grandparents attend the narrator's birthday party, and work together on a wonderful gift, highlights the ties of love that bind them all together.

I enjoyed this charming picture-book, both for its engaging story and for its dual narrative structure, which allows even those readers unfamiliar with the language to understand the various words and phrases in Spanish. Having already seen the same idea conveyed in English, they can easily guess what the Spanish portions means. I did feel at first - as I see a number of other reviewers have done - that the narrative favored Abuelito and Abuelita a little bit, showing them in a more positive light (Grandma and Grandpa watch a video of the circus with their granddaughter, while Abuelito and Abuelita take her to the circus itself; Grandma and Grandpa buy her some balloons, while Abuelito makes her a kite), but I think this may have been unconsciously done: an inadvertent result of the dual narrative mentioned above. Leaving that aside, I Love Saturdays y Domingos is still an engaging story, one I recommend to anyone looking for quality children's stories featuring multicultural and bilingual families.

"I Love Saturdays y Domingos" is about a young girl who visits her Grandma and Grandpa who come from a European-American background on Saturdays and on Sundays (los domingos) she visits her Abuelito and Abuelita who are Mexican-American. While the two sets of grandparents are different in many ways, they also have a lot in common, especially their love for their granddaughter. The book goes through all the different things that she does with both sets of grandparents and ends with her grandparents working together to give her a special gift for her birthday. While one set of grandparents got her a doll with a pretty blue dress, her other set of grandparents made her a matching blue dress to wear. At her party they sing "Happy Birthday" in both Spanish and English, and both languages are used throughout the book.

This book does a good job of celebrating both cultures, conveyed in Spanish and English. This is an excellent book to teach children the importance of respecting and valuing other cultures that are different than their own. The affirmation of both heritages may encourage students to want to know more about their own ethnic background as well as the various cultures they see around them. I also love the balance of Spanish and English in this book, and it was easy for me to understand since I have taken Spanish classes before. This would be an excellent book for students who are learning English as a second language, who are native Spanish speakers, because it includes many Spanish words and phrases as well as a traditional Mexican song sung at birthdays at the end of the story. This is a good mirror book for students who have multiple ethnicities and have similar experiences, and it can also serve as a window book for students to see the importance of respecting and understanding other cultures. I loved the message of love and respect in this book and I plan on having it in my classroom library in the future.

A glimpse into my childhood.

I love Saturday y Domingos is a lovely story narrated by a little girl who visits her English speaking grandparents on Saturday and her Spanish speaking grandparents on Sunday. The story shows us the differences and similarities both sets of grandparents have. We see how the little girl is surrounded by two cultures and so much love. I really loved how the author incorporated the families culture and heritage and how both sets of grandparents migrated. This story is great for multicultural students and families.

This story would be great to incorporate in the classroom when we are talking about families and how they come in different forms and that’s okay! It is also a great story to compare and contrast. For older students I would have the students do a Venn diagram. I would suggest for teachers reading this to practice reading in spanish, since this book does have quite a bit of spanish in it.

While researching picture books about the Spanish culture I happened upon this book where the child visits both sets of grandparents on the weekend. The paternal grandparents speak English and do activities with the child on Saturdays and the maternal grandparents do different things with her on Domingos (Sunday) and teach her Spanish phrases. I loved reading the English text as well as the Spanish language text so that I could compare and understand what was going on. The book explores the background of the grandparents and their beginnings, too. So this is a nice book explaining the history or family tree of the child's family. Colorful illustrations and the celebrations for the child on her birthday brings them all together.

I Love Saturdays y Domingos is a book I never thought I could relate to so much. I think even many children who are exposed to more than one language could relate to this as well. She really embraces her cultures and knows the language to use in their respective settings. This book will help students learn that it is more than okay to know both languages, it is an opportunity to keep in touch with more people. I think that when students who are in school and are not native English speakers have a difficult time learning the language and sometimes children will try to overcompensate by speaking (English in my experience) at home and at school. With a book like this, it can give students a sense of pride for partaking in the expression of both languages. One other thing I also really enjoyed was how in depth the book went on to explain the ancestry of both sides of her family. Starting from her mother's side to her father's side as well. A very important part of this book I believe is that it is a great addition for anyone who speaks either Spanish or English. Personally I love that I can take this book home and have relatives who don't speak English read the Spanish parts. The fact that there is a diversity in the characters who are not only in the background but integral to the story. When presenting her Spanish speaking grandparents she went on to explain how they are also Indigenous to the state of California before colonials came in and made it a state. This book would be considered Realistic Fiction since it is not a real story but it can relate to many people based on real experiences.

Many bilingual books have random Spanish (or other language) words thrown throughout the text that do not really explain what the words mean, but this book does a great job of tying both languages into a story. After reading this book I would have the students write about something special they love to do with their grandparents or any family members. I would also allow them to write some words in their language if they knew how to. While reading I would also ask some of my Latino students to assist me. Students who speak other languages besides English love the opportunity to speak it in school!