Es un trabajo de cultura, como luego relata la autora al concluir la historia, de esta pareja de aves. Pero lo que se pretende como una historia de soledad y angustia, concluye en un ejercicio simple de admiración y entrega por correspondencia. Es vaga, no arriesga nada. Es una historia sencilla de dos aves que se encuentra y surge una relación amena y cordial.

Story about 2 birds, one who is very beautiful and falls in love witha bird different from him and he doesnt let the differences keep them apart. Acceptance

Que romantica? YES! I love Pam's voice in this one. She is such an outstanding author. I love the way she uses language and puts words together--so poetic, such beautiful language. This is a very tranquil story with big heart. It captures the essence of hope and I loved turning the pages to see how the illustrations went from dull brown to full of magical color in order to tell the tale. Just beautiful. Nacho's beautiful song rings true for anyone ready to give love and hope a chance. I felt like I was stopping to smell the roses and remembering to not forget the simple things of life are the most important.

This is a story about 2 birds, one who is very beautiful and falls in love witha bird different from him and he doesnt let the differences keep them apart. This is a great book for an acceptance unit.

Title: Nacho and Lolita
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Illustrator: Caludia Rueda
Genre: Non European Folktale
Themes: Friendship, Loyalty, Love, Heroism
Opening line:
Once, when the two Californias ran alta y baja, high and low, along the sea of the Pacific, a mysterious bird landed on the branch of a mesquite tree in the valley of San Juan.

Brief book summary: A colorful bird named Nacho lands in a place a lot more dismal than he is. Everyone noticed him and thought he might be a prophet or spirit. One day Nacho meets Lolita, a swallow who came to nest in the same town Nacho landed in. Nacho and Lolita become great friends, but one day Lolita says she is going to leave because the river was drying up and the swallows didn’t have enough food. To help the town and make sure Lolita can return, Nacho plucks his feathers and leaves them around the town. Nacho saves the town and everything in it flourishes again. Lolita is able to come back to the town.

Professional Recommendation/ Review #1: CLCD- Emily Atkins (Children's Literature)
In this story of unlikely love set in a small, barren pueblo in the San Juan Valley of Mexico, Nacho, a mythical bird called a pitacoche, possesses magical feathers that represent all the colors of the world. The only one of his kind, he is too big to fly long distances and therefore bound to the land. Lolita is a small, strong swallow with a large family. When the swallows stop to nest in Nacho's pueblo, he meets Lolita and they fall in love. He helps her build her nest, guard her eggs, and raise her chicks. But when it comes time for Lolita and the other swallows to migrate, Nacho can't go with them. Lolita promises to return, but as time passes, the water in the pueblo dries up. Because he knows the swallows won't be able to roost there the next year, he sacrifices all of his magical feathers to turn the wasteland into a lush, colorful garden to attract their attention. This beautifully written story incorporates many Spanish words in a way that makes their meanings clear to young readers. The illustrations start out drab, with the exception of Nacho, and gradually grow more colorful as the story progresses toward its delightful, vibrant conclusion.

Professional Recommendation/ Review #2: Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
A sense of enchantment pervades this tender love story, which begins when a mysterious bird called a pitacochen, arrives in the San Juan valley. Rueda (Going to Grandma's Farmn) depicts the gray-brown adobe town as dull in hue but elegant in its simplicity, a striking contrast to Nacho, who "carried the colors of the world in his feathers." The bird's magnificent appearance and "haunting" evening song, cause the villagers to speculate that the winged visitor is "a spirit from the past" or "a prophet of the future." But Nacho, although proud of his gifts, has a lonely heart: he is "the only pitacochen for thousands of miles and hundreds of years." When las golondrinasn (the swallows) arrive on St. Joseph's feast day, Nacho forms a strong attachment to one of them, Lolita, offering her one of his wondrous feathers (a gray feather grows back in its place) and when the swallow accepts it, "by the mystery of the ages, it became a blue hibiscus." Throughout the ensuing months, Nacho helps all the swallows build nests and gather food, and when it comes time to migrate, Nacho tries to fly south too, without success. "That night... Nacho's song ached with sadness. 'Low-leeeee-tah, I loooove youn.' " Nacho then makes a great sacrifice in hopes of luring the swallows ("especially Lolita") back in the spring. Rueda's wordless spreads pay tribute to the enormity of Nacho's offering, which transforms the valley.

Response to two professional reviews: Although the first review was mostly a long description of the plot of the book, I think the reviewer described the book perfectly talking about the same elements in the story that I had noticed. The second review did a great job of reviewing the book while they described only some of the plot. It was a perfect mix of reviewing the plot while stating it, whereas a lot of reviewers will just tell you the plot of the book first even though you could easily look that up from a description of the book online

Evaluation of literary elements: The author uses different font to express the bird’s voices. When the birds sing a lullaby the font becomes bigger and sways across the page. When there are Spanish words in the text they are italicized. The illustrator uses different colors to represent the different moods of the characters or other aspects of the book. The rainbow colors of Nacho in the beginning are there to represent that Nacho is the one who will bring life and hope to the town. The town is gray to represent that it is dying and in need of help.

Consideration of instructional application: At some schools like Corl Street, the kids go to “specials.” Specials are classes revolved around the kids learning about other things from the standard subjects of reading or math. So if I was teaching a Spanish class for a special, or even teaching Spanish in my regular classroom I would use this book. It would probably work better for 3rd-4th grade as some of the Spanish words are long and more advanced. After the Spanish word is said in the book the English word follows it. So if you were reading the book out loud to the students they would understand what the Spanish word meant. The repetition of hearing both versions of the word would help them learn it better.

Wonderful way to bring legends to others. Quite a lovely story.