Alma Flor Ada, author of numerous bilingual children’s books takes us on a trip into the experience of having a bi-racial family. I love Saturdays y Domingos follows the story of a young girl who simply loves both sides of her heritage. She spends lots of time with her Mexican maternal grandparents and her European paternal grandparents. They each engage with her in their own ways and follow their own traditions, yet make sure that she knows that she is loved beyond anything else. The wonderful watercolor illustrations bring the reader in to experience las mananitas and the birthday song. The School Library Journal says it is “a strong statement about cultural diversity and the universality of love.”

I loved this story! It's about a young girl who talks of spending Saturdays with one set of grandparents and Sundays (or los domingos) with her Hispanic grandparents. The left side of the book tells of the Caucasian day while the right side depicts what goes on in the Hispanic family. Many of the happenings are written in English on the left, while the right page has a spattering of Spanish. The author does a great job of using the same words in English that are written in Spanish on the right page.

The young girl first tells of what she is given for breakfast at each home, pancakes at her one grandparents and huevos rancheros at the other. She also talks about one grandmother having a cat, while the other has a dog. Grandma collects owls while Abuelita raises chickens. The little girl likes the circus and her grandparents show her a video about it. Un domingo, Abuelito and Abuelita take her to the circus. The story continues with parallel life stories, one from the viewpoint of the grandparents' family who were raised in New York, and the Abuelita and Abuelito who are from Mexico and are Indian-American. The story brings both of these cultures together and shows how people can get along and actually be happy, even though they are different.

This story is about a young girl who spends her weekends with her grandparents. Her grandma and grandpa speak English and her abuelito and abuelita speak Spanish. She spends los domingos or Sundays with them. This book highlights all of the differences between the two but there is also one huge similarity, their love for their granddaughter. This is a great book for students who share more than one heritage or culture. It is a great way for students to be proud of each part of their heritage and for them to understand both.

Multicultural book at it's finest. This is a must have, especially for those who have students that are part of blended families. This would be a cool book to read during, and beyond Spanish Heritage month. I love the loving, warm and exciting family that the little girl has in her life. The great things marriage can bring.
Of course this book would be ideal in your multicultural bin in the classroom. It is ideal to teach diversity. Because of the birthday celebrations in this book, I would ask students to write about how they celebrate their birthdays.

This is such a good book! It's about a bilingual girl who goes to her grandparents on her dads side, who speak English, and goes to her grandparents on her moms side, who speak Spanish on Sundays. I love how this book includes multiple perspectives and includes different cultural groups. The book is fun to read, has colorful pages, and I think children could relate as it includes realistic characters and is age appropriate. I also love how the book incorporates a bit of the Spanish language. This is important when representing a group of people, their language. The books shows similarities and differences on each page, but in a warm, simple way. There are no negative stereotypes in this book and both cultures are represented well. I think this is a great book for children when addressing multiple cultures .

This book is about a fictional girl who spends the weekends with her grandparents. However her experiences are little different because half of her grandparents are European American whom speak english and the others are Mexican American who speak predominately Spanish. She does different activities with each one such as looking at a fish aquarium versus going to the pier or playing with balloons versus playing with kites. She expresses how much she loves both sides of her grandparents and calls those days her special days. This may be where the author comes from or it is something she has seen because she comes from the Latin American background as well. Children will be able to relate to this book because in this age there are starting to be more diverse families in the world. Furthermore, it presents two cultural sides and shows differences that occur between each one in a positive manner. .The illustrations back this up because the variations of skin tone between the different ethnicities are visible. Additionally the differences between the two cultures are not extended into stereotypes in the illustrations. The rest of the pictures are colorful as well. The book goes on to explain where each family comes from, shaping the brief history which ends in all of them gathering together at the child’s birthday party with I think is very genuine and realistic. The author does a good job of dividing the book and showcasing both sides fairly from both cultures, and celebrating each side.

I love Saturdays y Domingos describes the experience of a young girl as she spends one Saturday with her English speaking grandparents and another with her Grandparents who are Mexican-American and speak Spanish. The author shows this parallel experience on each page as this little girl visits her grandparents’ house weekly. Although they speak different languages, eat different food, and have different Saturday routines, their love for the granddaughter is universal. Alma Flor Ada does a wonderful job of showing the cultural advantage of a bi-racial child. The traditions of each heritage is celebrated through the life of this little girl. Targeted to a young audience, I think I love Saturdays y Domingos could be a good text to include in a study of multiculturalism, families, and traditions. Bi-racial children would connect with this little girl’s experience and the notion that love crosses all cultural boundaries. Ada integrates many Spanish words into the text, helping children to learn common Spanish vocabulary.

This book of parallels exploring a little girl’s experience with each set of her grandparents is heartwarming. The words and phrases in both Spanish and English, making this realist fiction story true to the experience. For many children, families consist of two or more. Both grandparents tell her stories of growing up in the United States as well as Mexico. Native Americans are also a part of this little girl’s family, broadening the cultural diversity. The illustrations at the little girl’s birthday party, specifically, offer multiple races, ages, and genders. The clothes that her grandparents wear represent the culture in which they were raised. This story emphasized the fact that although there are cultural differences, the one thing they have in common is love.

Published: 2002, Aladdin Paperbacks
Age: 4-8
This is a warm story about a little bilingual girl who spends Saturdays with her father’s parents who are Euro-American and Sundays (los domingos) with her mother’s parents who are Mexican-American. She speaks English with her paternal grandparents and Spanish with her maternal grandparents. Both grandparents love her and they do similar things with her: Breakfast is scrambled eggs, milk, and pancakes with the American parents and huevos rancheros and papaya juice with the Mexican-American grandparents. The different cultures are depicted and she has fun with both sets. It does seem like the Mexican-American grandparents are a little more fun, though. They all come together in the end to celebrate her birthday. She is very happy with both sides and we can see the differences and similarities between the two sets of grandparents. Elivia Savadier’s illustrations complement the text with cartoonish watercolor pictures. The American grandparents are pictured on the left side of the page and the Spanish grandparents are on the right side. There is Spanish words mixed in that are easily discernable. The song Las Mananitas is written in Spanish and then in English.

This is a cute story about a girl who spends her Saturdays with her grandma and grandpa and on Sundays she spends it with her abuelita and abuelito. Throughout the book you will see the similarities and differences that the young girl gets to experience with both sets of grandparents. One example is that her grandma and grandpa watch the circus on the T.V. and her abuelita and abuletio take her to watch a circus. She loves both the mother elephant and her baby elephant! Her grandma and grandpa get the young girl a doll in a beautiful dress. Her abuelita and abuelito bring her a dollhouse and make her a dress just like her dolls! One thing that remains in this book is the love the grandparents have for their granddaughter.

This picture book is written in English with Spanish words included for effect. It is the story of a little girl who loves the weekend because she spends time with her grandparents. Saturdays are just that because she spends them with her white grandparents but she calls Sundays domingos because that is the day she spends with her Hispanic grandparents. She describes the difference between spending time with each grandparent, how each communicate with her and what they serve her to eat. She describes the difference between the pets they have and their homes. It also describes the difference between how each set of grandparents spends time with her, the white grandparents choosing to watch TV with her or look in the fish tank while the Hispanic grandparents take her to the circus and to go watch the fish in the ocean. Both sets of grandparents also chose to tell stories to the little girl about how their families came to America. This gives the girl an interesting perspective on the difference in journeys that each of these families took. I think that this story is a great read for any child that has a mixed cultural background.

The author did a great job integrating both American and Mexican cultures into the book. I think this is a wonderful book for English Language Learner's whose native language is Spanish because the author included Spanish words throughout the book. I think this aspect would make the student feel more comfortable having words in the story that they are very familiar with. Furthermore, this is a great book for English Language Learner students of Mexican culture because they would be able to connect and relate with the events occurring in the story. Reading this book in school would be great because it would give the English Language Learner student the opportunity to share with the class about their culture and how it is similar and different from what is described in the story. Doing this activity would make the student feel important because we should appreciate their culture and work it into the lessons instead of making them fully transfer into the American culture. This book does a great job of showing the balance of the two cultures within one's family.