La Hermanita de Tommy = The Baby Sister

K-Gr 3-This book details Tommy's dream of having a baby sister with a red ribbon in her hair and his excitement when she arrives. Many of the specifics of the story are universal feeling the mother's stomach as the unborn baby moves, wondering if it will be a boy or girl, missing the mother when she is in the hospital for the birth. Others are specific to the author's own story, such as the crusty Italian grandmother who comes to care for him and who speaks in Italian to his father ""so that Tommy won't understand,"" not to mention her frequent pasta meals. Eventually, the protagonist makes friends with his grandmother. The illustrations are bright, detailed, and humorous, as is typical of dePaola's work. The translation is fluid and graceful. The text is longer than that of most picture books and features a number of multisyllabic words. Although this may make the book too difficult for beginning readers, they will enjoy hearing it read aloud. Readers with better skills will want to read it alone. Recommended for all collections. Coop Renner, Paul C. Moreno Elementary School, El Paso, TX