This book by award-winning Cuban-American author Alam Flor Ada tells a story of a young girl and her multi-cultural family. Alma Flor Ada's story follows the young Mexican-American girl going to her American grandparent's house on Saturdays and her Mexican grandparents on Sundays. For example on Saturdays, she eats a typical American meal and speaks in English. On Sundays, she has a typical Mexican breakfast and speaks Spanish. Throughout the author's story, the message of loving all cultures is quite apparent. Read this book to follow the wonderful story of a girl and her family!

Her illustrations are easy for children to follow and understand the story of the young girl and her Mexican-American family. Through her watercolored drawings, the audience can visually follow the young girl through her journey about loving people with different cultures. The illustrations also clearly show the theme of loving and acceptance of multi-cultures. With the many different colors used throughout this book, also sends the clear message at the end of the story that people come in all shapes and sizes and it's wonderful!

This is a beautifully illustrated, multicultural picture book that follows a young girl as she explains her favorite weekend activities. She spends saturdays with her European American grandparents and Domingos (Sundays) with her Mexican American Abuelito y Abuelita. Ada does a beautiful job of blending these two cultures. This book is so refreshing! Especially at a time when more and more children find themselves a part of a shared culture. The illustrations add to the warmth that you feel when listening to the little girl explain why she loves her time spent with her grandparents. The soft watercolors accompany the child's narrations beautifully. This would be a wonderful addition to a classroom library in the hopes that a child will read it and realize that they are not the only one whose life may be a little different.

This book is about a young girl who has a set of grandparents who are from a European-American background and the others are Mexican-American. I love this book so much because I do think that this is very important for children to see no matter what background you come from. I like that she loves everyone so much and treat them the same. The illustrations in this book are very realistic and do not really create or show any negative stereotypes. It also shows that she does go and spend time with them and do fun things. The illustrations do show and follow the plot of the story. In the end, everyone does come together and all gather together and they are all friends and love one another so much. Two cultures coming together in the name of family and love. There is Spanish in here and it is represented in an appropriate manner. It is not just typical Spanish and actually does get things correctly. The book makes me feel at home even though my family does not look like this necessarily, but I do know that it will be representative with other children. Children do grow up and have a multicultural family and may sometimes catch a bad representation of them and their family. This may help them deal with that guilt of who they are. The culture in this book is amazing for everyone to see. Illustrations in this book are very relaxing and appropriate for the age group as a children's book.

In this story, a little girl tells the audience about how she visits her grandparents on the weekends. On Saturdays she visits her American, English speaking grandparents and then on Sundays she visits her Spanish speaking grandparents. She tells the differences and similarities between the two including the love they share for her.

I love that this story uses English and Spanish words. I believe there are so many children who can relate to this story. The illustrations are fun, bright and engaging. This is a great family story all around. I love how she compares each set of grandparents and brings to light the best of both worlds.

I would connect this book with the book Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley to show similarities and differences between other multicultural families.

Quote: "Some say, "Happy Birthday" and some say "Feliz cumpleanos". For me it's a wonderful day, un dia maravilloso."

This text is available online as a video through YouTube.com. I chose this formatting because it was one that I had not used prior to this class. I chose to explore the options of a digital text and see if the end point and purpose could be the same.

I enjoyed listening to this book on video, and did not feel that the elements of a read aloud or silent reading were taken away. I enjoyed that the illustrations were still present and able to be seen through the video. I find that I connect more with picture books that have illustrations, than those that do not.

This text is about a girl who visits her father's parents on Saturdays and her mother's parents on Sundays. Her father parents are of Caucasian decent (the book does not explicitly stated their heritage), and her mother's parents are of Hispanic decent (again, the book does not explicitly state their heritage). The girl explains her traditions with each side of her family on Saturdays and on Los Domingos (Sundays).

I love this book because of the similar comparisons that it makes. I find that a large deal of students can connect with either day of the weekend and what the girl spends her time doing. It shows that students can be biracial and how to embrace the differences in the different parts of ones family. Both sides of the family are shown in a very positive light, which I also enjoy because this opens the gates for so many learning opportunities.

This text could be used for grade levels ranging from K-1 up through 3-5 grade levels, depending on the way in which it is used. This book could be used in monolingual classrooms and learned to teach various Spanish words. The same is true of a bi-lingual classroom, where students can used either their second language to decode the texts or used their native language and connect with the Spanish language that is embedded within the text.

While this story does include some stereotypes, I do not think that they are presented in a negative way. I think that this text could be used as a way for teachers to point out the stereotypes and use it as a learning opportunity rather than allow students to believe that all Caucasian families have the same traditions, or that all Hispanic families have the same traditions. There are many learning opportunities that this book can provide, if used in the correct way.

You are sure to take a journey through cultures when reading I Love Saturdays y Domingos. Author, Alma Flor Ada entices the reader into a world that might feel a little uncomfortable for us but to the little girl in the book is just another normal weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s or Abuelita and Abuelito’s. This little elementary-aged girl has two sets of grandparents. One set that is assumably from the United States and speaks English and another set from Mexico and speaks Spanish. Ada recounts the girls weekends spent with each set of grandparents and the ways in which each set does things differently. It is so fun to see how each set of grandparents introduces her to similar topics but in different ways. Ada enlightens us on how your previous experiences in life dictate the way in which you respond to something or pass on values to the next generations.

This is a great eye opener to children who might not be aware that life is lived differently depending on what cultural differences you celebrate in your family. Children who have similar circumstances that the little girl in the story has will definitely feel a sense of connection and will hopefully learn to celebrate the differences instead of seeing it as a hindrance if they don’t already.

I Love Saturdays y Domingos is a book about valuing cultural differences and would be an excellent read aloud for children K-3. This book would be a wonderful book to begin a writing lesson with that focuses on children writing their own personal narrative about what it is like when they go to each set of grandparents houses. The concept of comparing and contrasting can surely be used and vividly seen when reading this book. It is a wonderful book that also incorporates the use of both the English and Spanish language. No prior ability to speak Spanish is required but you might find prior experience helpful when reading it as a read aloud as children (especially young Kindergartners) might become restless as you sound out words.

"I Love Saturdays y Domingos" is a wonderful book about a little girl and her two diverse set of grandparents. She loves Saturdays because she spends them with her grandma and grandpa, who make milk, scrambled eggs, and pancakes for her. She loves domingos (Sundays) because she spends them with abuelito and abuelita, who make papaya juice and a plate of eggs called hueves rancheros. This book goes through a series of different things the little girl does with each set of grandparents. She eventually has a birthday party and both sets of grandparents come with their own unique gifts for her. At the party, they have a piñata and even more relatives end up coming. The book has a Spanish vocabulary all throughout and is used in an authentic manner to weave together the girl's Spanish culture with the American culture.
As a teacher, I would use this book to teach students about different cultures and how some students may come from multiple cultures. Also, I would use this book to introduce some Spanish writing, which would be beneficial for both, native English speakers and ELLs.

This is a young girl loving the similarities and the differences between her English-speaking and Spanish-speaking grandparents. On Saturdays she goes to visit her father’s parents, Grandma and Grandpa. On Sundays she spends the day with her mother’s parents, Abuelito y Abuelita. She eats different breakfasts with each grandparent. Grandma has a cat named Taffy. Abuelita has a dog named Canelo. The young girl spends her weekend doing different activities with both sets of grandparents. When it is time to celebrate her birthday both sets of grandparents give her gifts the things she enjoys. She gets a new doll from Grandma and Grandpa and a dress. Her Abuelito has made her a dollhouse and Abuelita has made her a dress. The dress is the same as her doll showing the grandparents work together to get to know their granddaughter. The kids take turn breaking the piñata. Her family celebrates by singing Happy Birthday and Las Mananitas. This multicultural story shows how people of all cultures love and celebrate the next generation in different ways, but still with love. It also uses Spanish words to tell the domingo’s events introducing Spanish vocabulary words.

ILLUSTRATIONS: Illustrations are watercolors and are done in a warm color pallet with soft edges. Ms. Savadier helps depict some of the Spanish words with pictures allowing the reader to figure out what the Spanish word may be in English.

THEMES: tFamily, Cultures, and Celebrations

TEKS:
§113.12. Social Studies, Grade 1, Beginning with School Year 2011-2012
(15)  Culture. The student understands the importance of family and community beliefs, customs, language, and traditions. The student is expected to:
(A)  describe and explain the importance of various beliefs, customs, language, and traditions of families and communities; and

This narrative is told from the perspective of young girl who has two very different sets of grandparents. Her father’s grandparents are Caucasian and her mother’s parents are Hispanic. She refers to her father’s parents as Grandma and Grandpa, and she refers to her mother’s parents as Abuelito y Abuelita. She experiences two different cultures when she visits each grandparent’s house (ex. “On Saturdays, Grandma serves me breakfast: milk, scrambled eggs, and pancakes.” And “Los Domingos, Abuelita serves me a large glass of papaya juice and a plate of eggs called huevos rancheros.”). As a teacher, I would use this book to expose children to the Spanish Language in an authentic context. The author, Alma Flor Ada, does a great job of seamlessly integrating Spanish words and phrases into the pages about the girl’s Abuelito y Abuelita that allow students to derive the meaning of the phrase(ex. “For me, it’s a wonderful day, un dia maravilloso”). I would extend learning from this text by making a list on the board of all the Spanish words and phrases used in the text and then discussing with my students how they might be able to use that word or phrase in their life. I would then challenge my students to use a different word or phrase from the book each day for the rest of the week. Both the author and the illustrator of this book are Hispanic, which adds to the authenticity of the book. Alma Flor Ada wrote this book because her own grandchildren have two sets of grandparents that are from distinctly different cultures. This book relates to my text set because it shows a unique type of family, one where the grandparents are from different cultures. I want my children to be exposed to as many different types of families as possible. This was a great book and I would recommend it to everyone.

I quite enjoyed this book, and I appreciated the smooth integration of Spanish and English in a way that helped me understand and also didn't seem like it would be cumbersome for someone who speaks both languages. It celebrates two sets of grandparents, both whose culture is part of the main character's life. Saturdays are spent with grandparents who speak English and Domingos (Sundays) are spent with grandparents who speak Spanish-- they remain separate until the end, when all the family comes together to celebrate the child's birthday, clearly collaborating to make it a wonderful day for her.

1. I Love Saturdays y Domingos
2. Awards: none
3. Genre: inclusion and diversity
4. Setting: the families house
5. This book is such a good representation of diversity and inclusion. It shows the unity of two different cultures. The cultures can blissfully meld together to make a happy family. There does not have to be any separation. This book does not have to be just for students and occasions when we have students of two obviously different culture. Reading the book is just a good reminder to be accepting of the differences in cultures. I would most definitely read this book to a kindergarten class.

This is an excellent multicultural book that can be offered for students in early elementary school. The story follows a young girl who spends her Saturdays with her American grandparents, and spends her Sundays with her Spanish grandparents. I really enjoyed the images and how they depicted the many different activities the young girl experienced with both cultures in her family. I also enjoyed the intermingled language that can offer great education qualities for students. Overall, I could see myself using this book in my classroom.