In this entertaining, bilingual exploration of language, children are introduced to a second language and get a glimpse of another culture. VE LO QUE DICES/SEE WHAT YOU SAY explores the ways two different cultures view their own languages through familiar idioms. Sometimes the words we use have a different meaning from what we say. For instance, if a person becomes hasty and does things out of order, in English we say he has put the cart before the horse. In Spanish he is starting to build the house at the roof. Although they mean the same thing, the literal sense of these phrases is quite different. In VE LO QUE DICES/SEE WHAT YOU SAY, these contrasting expressions become charming and vivid vignettes.
Nancy María Grande Tabor’s signature cut paper illustrations are remarkable in their three-dimensional quality and light-hearted presentation of some very off-the-wall phrases. Children and adults alike will have a great time guessing what idiom each illustration represents.
