ARRORRÓ, MI NIÑO

Warm illustrations with earth-toned backgrounds and more brightly dressed characters provide settings for this collection of 15 Spanish-language nursery rhymes. Delacre offers an English version of each rhyme—most in free rather than rhyming verse; some more literal than others—and, at the back, musical settings for 11 of them. Several are pat-a-cake–style rhymes, involving hand movements and basic rhythms. Others end with a child-pleasing tickle under the arm, and others are for soothing hurts or preparing a child for bed. Given the mostly free-verse settings of the English versions, these will be more useful as guides for non- or limited-Spanish speakers who want to use the Spanish, rather than as free-standing poems for chanting together. A tender collection, most welcome for the home and perhaps also appropriate for some daycare or lapsit settings. (Poetry. 0-5)