Tacos Today: El Toro & Friends

by Raúl the Third, Raúl the Third (Illustrator)

Overview

An NPR Books We Love Selection

"Outrageously creative! Kids will drink in every imaginative detail in El Toro's wild world!" —Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

From New York Times bestselling, three-time Pura Belpré Award-winning author-illustrator Raúl the Third, Tacos Today follows the young luchadores on the hunt for their favorite lunch in an action-packed, graphic-novel-style El Toro & Friends paper-over-board reader from the Eisner-nominated World of ¡Vamos!

It's lunchtime for young El Toro and his friends—and each one is looking forward to a different kind of taco, their favorite!

The luchadores take a break from their training and head into town to eat. When they count their lunch money and discover they don't have enough for tacos, they will have to work together on a creative, fun solution to earn plenty of dinero for a delicious all-you-can-eat spectacular!

Flavored with Spanish phrases and topped with plenty of humor, this early reader graphic novel is essential for those who want an action-packed story and lots of laughs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358539377
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Series:	World of ¡Vamos! Series
Pages:	56
Sales rank:	406,619
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Raúl the Third is the New York Times bestselling, three-time Pura Belpré Award–winning author-illustrator of the World of ¡Vamos! and the illustrator of Schneider Family Award honoree Stuntboy, in the Meantime, written by Jason Reynolds. He lives in Medford, Massachusetts, with his New York Times bestselling collaborator, Elaine Bay.

Raúl the Third is the New York Times bestselling, three-time Pura Belpré Award–winning author-illustrator of the World of ¡Vamos! and the illustrator of Schneider Family Award honoree Stuntboy, in the Meantime, written by Jason Reynolds. He lives in Medford, Massachusetts, with his New York Times bestselling collaborator, Elaine Bay.

Editorial Reviews

“Outrageously creative! Kids will drink in every imaginative detail in El Toro’s wild world!” — Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

"Caution: don't read this while hungry! This mouthwatering early-reader comic follows El Toro and his luchador pals on a hunt for Tuesday's favorite food group... Full of action and gorgeous color… Nicely expanding the universe of the original series titles." — Booklist

"Detailed backgrounds combined with upbeat and expressive character design allow young readers to fully immerse themselves… Emphasizes problem-solving, positivity, and teamwork… A great pick for beginning readers who are just getting the hang of graphic novels.” — School Library Journal

“In typical ¡Vamos! style, a vibrant world bursts to life on every page, filled with movement and a detailed host of cartoon characters... Raúl offers a lesson in visual literacy, utilizing speech bubbles and panels in addition to traditional narration.” — Booklist (starred review) for Tag Team and Training Day

“Simple sentences and recognizable—yet entirely fresh and original—plot structures set up young readers for accomplishment. Visual and linguistic whirls and twirls match the fast-paced tempo of lucha libre, serving up dazzling Chicano English.” — Horn Book (starred review) for Tag Team and Training Day

“Providing bilingual and bilingual-wannabe audiences with easy reader materials that reflect and promote conversational and reading flexibility... with phrases sometimes translated within the text, sometimes understandable through visual context clues, and often delightfully left for readers to puzzle out on their own.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) for Tag Team and Training Day

“[A] vibrant comic book–style world… Clear outlines, lively pastel colors and easy-to-read text—which identifies Spanish sentences in purple font—provide an atmosphere full of action.” — School Library Journal (starred review) for Team Up

From the Publisher

04/01/2023

Gr 1–3—Young El Toro and his fellow luchadores (Armor Dillo, Lizards, Jack A. Lopez, and La Oink Oink) want tacos for lunch but lack the funds to make it happen. After taking the party bus to Taco Square, the group starts performing their luchador skills in order to earn the required taco money and ultimately satisfy their hungry bellies. In this early reader graphic novel—style work, which employs a mix of paneled pages and ample full spreads, detailed backgrounds combined with upbeat and expressive character design allow young readers to fully immerse themselves in the anthropomorphic animal "World of ¡Vamos!" Centered on a fairly benign conflict (aka getting money for tacos), the short but focused plot emphasizes problem-solving, positivity, and teamwork. The incorporated Spanish words and phrases within the text stand out thanks to purple font color, and their meanings are easy to decipher from surrounding context. VERDICT A great pick for beginning readers who are just getting the hang of graphic novels. Only downside? It will make you hungry for tacos!

School Library Journal