Little Skeletons / Esqueletitos: Countdown to Midnight

by Susie Jaramillo, Susie Jaramillo (Illustrator)

Overview

Little Skeletons/Esqueletitos: Countdown to Midnight is the 5th book from the Canticos collection.

2018 International Latino Book Awards winner for Best Latino Picture Book.

This book is based on the song “Los Esqueletos Salen de la Tumba“ (The Skeletons Come Out of the Tomb) .

With Mexican-inspired black and white hand drawn art, it is a festive Halloween and Day of the Dead celebration. This book has been included in the 2018 Tejas Star Reading List.

Children can read the book, sing the song, move the hands of the clock or shut off the lights to watch the little skeletons glow in the dark!

Inspired by beautiful calavera art by José Guadalupe Posada, this book is not just for kids. The hand-drawn art make this a great coffee table book for lovers of Mexican art.

Canticos animated videos are now streaming across Nickelodeon’s digital platforms. Watch them now at nickjr.com/canticos

Concept: Telling time & counting from one to 12.

Format:

• Novelty book with an accordion fold so the book can be opened completely and laid flat or made to stand so children can surround themselves with the story.
• Interactive lift-the-flap features.
• Reversible with the original Spanish song on one side and an English adaptation on the other side.
• A moveable clock at the start of the book will tempt little fingers to change the time along with the story.
• Comes in a slipcase.

Children can also download the FREE companion app at canticosworld.com/apps/ as well as watch the sing along video at canticosworld.com/videos

Book summary: Follow the little skeletons as they go about their surprising and intriguing day while counting down from 1 PM to midnight.

About the Series: Canticos is a collection of the most beloved nursery rhymes and children’s songs from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Canticos creates bilingual books, apps, and sing-along videos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945635069
Publisher:	Encantos Media
Publication date:	08/08/2017
Series:	Canticos Series
Edition description:	Bilingual: Spanish-English
Pages:	22
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 5 Years

About the Author

Susie Jaramillo: Susie Jaramillo is a mom, an artist and a creative director raising two bilingual children. She worked for many years in advertising having co-founded the vox collective, a NY-based boutique multicultural agency where she served as Chief Creative Officer until 2012. She attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where she majored in painting and illustration.

Susie Grew up between Venezuela and the United States, always going back and forth fluently between cultures. As a child, she was exposed to songs and traditions from both the United States and Latin America. To bring to life all the things she loved about her Latino culture she created Canticos and now kids of all ages can enjoy these nursery rhymes and songs! She lives in Brooklyn.

Editorial Reviews

06/26/2017
A Spanish rhyme, “Los Esqueletos,” forms the basis of this bilingual, accordion-style board book that features a busy cast of skeletons (humans, monkeys, birds, and more) drawn in the style of José Guadalupe Posada’s La Catrina, which has become synonymous with Día de los Muertos celebrations. Given that the rhyme originated in Spanish, it’s perhaps not surprising that it reads more smoothly in that language than in English (“When the old clock strikes the hour of three,/ three skeletitos backwards flee”). But Jaramillo’s exuberant pencil illustrations brim with festive detail; clocks with moveable hands open both versions of the story, playing into the time-telling aspect of this eerie counting tale. Up to age 4. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Jaramillo’s exuberant pencil illustrations brim with festive detail; clocks with moveable hands open both versions of the story, playing into the time-telling aspect of this eerie counting tale." - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—Children can practice their numbers while singing and dancing with a delightful group of skeletons. In her now trademark bilingual concertina format, Jaramillo introduces children to a Mexican counting song. A clock with movable hands at the start of the book will help them keep track of the graveyard fun. As the clock moves from one to two to three and eventually to 12, the graveyard inhabitants participate in different activities rhyming with the corresponding number: "When the old clock strikes the hour of five/five skeletitos jump up and jive." The recurring refrain in Spanish ("Tumba-laca tumba-laca tumba tumba,/tumba-laca tumba-laca tumba-la") is a clever play on the Spanish word for tomb, tumba, and the Mexican word for skeleton, calaca. The English translation is just as effective, playing with the word tomb. Readers familiar with other books in the series will recognize some of the characters, only this time in friendly skeleton shapes, the illustrations all in black-and-white as befits the theme of the song. Observant readers will discover a surprise bonus: the cover glows in the dark! VERDICT Use this for a Day of the Dead storytime program, but do not limit it to that—it's too much fun!—Lucia Acosta, Children's Literature Specialist, NJ

School Library Journal

2017-08-27
With this fifth addition to her Canticos line of songs for babies, Venezuelan-born Jaramillo partners Mexico's Day of the Dead's painted skeletons, or "calacas," with a popular Latin American children's song, "Los Esqueletos." This how-to-tell-time counting rhyme is punctuated by the catchy refrain "Tomb-a-laca tomb-a-laca tomb-a tomb-a, tomb-a-laca" and follows the nattily dressed skeletons as they emerge from their tombs (tumbas). The clock counts up from one to 12, while the bony party animals eat, dance, and play. The Spanish language lyrics beg to be shared with laugh-out-loud abandon. However, "esqueletitos" becomes the Spanglish word "skeletitos" instead of "little skeletons" for the sake of maintaining the meter. Unfortunately, this modification isn't enough to make the stanzas work. The English-language translation is forced and awkward in too many instances. "When the old clock strikes the hour of three, / three skeletitos backwards flee!" Rather than rewriting the lyrics, Jaramillo must rely on near rhymes since the eye-catching black-and-white illustrations are identical for both versions. Sadly, aside from a clock with movable hands, the interactive elements of Jaramillo's previous books are lacking here. The accordion-fold design, on the other hand, continues to ensure that neither the Spanish nor English text takes precedence over the other. A free downloadable app of the song is available for home enjoyment. Worth it for the Spanish rendition—which those who don't speak the language will be happy to have learned. (Board book. 1-5)

Kirkus Reviews