Todo es canción

K-Gr 4—Ada has edited a number of lovely books of traditional rhymes, but Todo es canción (Everything Is Song) gives her a chance to showcase her own poetry. The selections are organized by theme. "For Laughing and Playing" includes traditional rhymes, with tales of cats and mice and hens. "In School" includes counting rhymes, and "My Books" is a gift for librarians everywhere to share with children. There are selections that will encourage movement, and those that can be adapted as fingerplays. "Sun and Foam," "Dreams and Fantasies," and "The Power of Words" all contain thoughtful and powerful pieces. The whole is summed up in the final poem, in which Ada celebrates the song in everything around us, and ends by saying, essentially, "Because you have been born, life wants to sing." This book is to Latino children what Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses is to English-speaking youngsters. It is not just a poetry anthology, but truly a lasting contribution to Latino literature that belongs in every library that serves young Spanish-speakers and their parents.—Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO