Training Day: El Toro & Friends

by Raúl the Third

Overview

"Bursting with imagination and creativity! Your kids will go loco for El Toro!" —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, Training Day finds El Toro preparing for his wrestling match in Spanish and English in this graphic-novel-style El Toro & Friends reader from the Eisner-nominated World of ¡Vamos!

Little Lobo introduced readers to his wrestling hero El Toro in ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market! Now El Toro is off on his own adventures in this early reader graphic novel series!

Getting out of bed isn't always easy, especially for Mexican wrestling star El Toro. But his coach, Kooky Dooky, knows that it’s important for the wrestler to stay in shape and keep training—even when he doesn't feel like it.

Can Kooky Dooky raise El Toro’s spirits and get him to practice before his next big wrestling match?

With unique, detailed illustrations and easy Spanish and English vocabulary words, sports fans and comic book fans alike will fall in love with El Toro on his training day adventures in this fun early reader graphic novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358392651
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Series:	World of ¡Vamos! Series
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	87 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
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 ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market, ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat, ¡Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge, and the rest of the World of ¡Vamos! series. He is also the illustrator of Schneider Family Book Award Honoree Stuntboy, in the Meantime, written by Jason Reynolds, and the Lowriders series, written by Cathy Camper. Raúl was born in Texas and grew up going back and forth between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, México. He now lives in Medford, Massachusetts, with his collaborator and fellow New York Times bestselling artist, Elaine Bay, and their son, Raúl the Fourth.

Editorial Reviews

03/08/2021

Pura Belpré Medalist Raúl the Third expands the ¡Vamos! universe in this jaunty spin-off series opener following the luchador El Toro and his friends. In this installment, rooster and unrelenting luchador trainer Kooky Dooky endeavors to motivate a lethargic El Toro to prepare for his match against The Wall, a powerfully built wrestler “made out of bricks” and “undefeated champion of the world.” Sporting a nightcap and comfortably burrowed underneath star-patterned blankets, El Toro gives excuse after excuse, in English and Spanish, to avoid training (“I’m tired. Estoy cansado”), but the sprightly Kooky Dooky remains undeterred (“You are not tired. You slept for eight hours!”). The action picks up once Kooky Dooky persuades El Toro to try a training regimen—readers are treated to a montage of El Toro performing a series of increasingly hilarious tasks (e.g., hitting “the Spiked Piñatas of DOOM!”). As in the World of ¡Vamos! books, the creator, alongside colorist Elaine Bay, utilizes comics-style layouts and an eye-catching, lightly faded color palette. Though the big match-up between El Toro and The Wall feels truncated, lively banter and humorous illustrations make for an absorbing early reader. Publishing simultaneously: Tag Team (El Toro and Friends). Ages 4–7. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Bursting with imagination and creativity! Your kids will go loco for El Toro!" — Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

"In typical ¡Vamos! style, a vibrant world bursts to life on every page, filled with movement and a detailed host of cartoon characters, though text and images are simplified to accommodate beginning readers. Raúl offers a lesson in visual literacy, utilizing speech bubbles and panels in addition to traditional narration." — Booklist (starred review)

"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.... Reward[s] attentive eyes and ears with endless detail and inside jokes." — Horn Book (starred review)

"A generous touch of giddy surrealism continues to make Raúl the Third’s faunal milieu a destination, lovingly detailed in frenetic compositions and Bay’s SweeTart-hued digital colorization. Exercise and toilet cleaning are rarely this much fun." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

"As in the World of ¡Vamos! books, the creator, alongside colorist Elaine Bay, utilizes comics-style layouts and an eye-catching, lightly faded color palette.... lively banter and humorous illustrations make for an absorbing early reader." — Publishers Weekly

"The unstoppable Raúl the Third brings his border barrio to rip-roaring life with plenty of humor, embedded Spanish, and Chicano cultural references.... Comic-book and lucha libre fans alike will not tap out of this semibilingual smackdown." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

"Bursting with imagination and creativity! Your kids will go loco for El Toro!"

Jeff Kinney

2021-02-09
El Toro needs to train for his big lucha libre match, but all he wants to do is sleep!

Poor Kooky Dooky—¿Qué va hacer? What’s he going to do? This quirky, early-reader spinoff of the ¡Vamos! series follows exasperated trainer Kooky Dooky as he pulls all the stops to get and keep El Toro out of bed. How about a big breakfast? Nope. After a gigantic belch, the sluggish luchador nose-dives under the covers. The rooster lures his trainee out of the bed with smelly shoes and a promise to go easy. Finally the training program gets results: Obstreperous chickens are caught by hand—er, hoof; the unplugged mechanical bull is dominated; the “Spiked Piñatas of DOOM” are pulverized; junk cars are crushed; and abuelas are helped across the street. Todo es listo—all is ready. Today El Toro will obliterate The Wall (pun very much intended—one of The Wall’s fans sports a distinctive blond ’do and orange skin). The unstoppable Raúl the Third brings his border barrio to rip-roaring life with plenty of humor, embedded Spanish, and Chicano cultural references. Colorist Bay’s creative enhancement of Raúl’s detail-rich frames continues their energetic collaboration. Action explodes throughout, though readers may be disappointed by the abrupt ending. In the simultaneously publishing Tag Team, El Toro and La Oink Oink team up to clean the arena following their thrashing of Donny Dollars and the Bald Águila.

Comic-book and lucha libre fans alike will not tap out of this semibilingual smackdown. (Early reader. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews