Chato and the Party Animals by Gary Soto. Illustrated by Susan Guevara

This is a great book for bilingual students, or any students interested in both Spanish and English. The story is about a cat named Chato and his best friend Novio Boy. Novio Boy came from the pound and has never had a birthday party before. Chato, being a party animal, decides to throw his best friend a birthday party. The book starts with a glossary of twenty Spanish words that are used throughout the story and their English translation. In the story itself the Spanish words are italicized so that the reader knows to refer to the glossary for the English translation. This book is excellent for Spanish speaking students and/or Spanish speaking ELL students. Also, this book would be perfect for English speaking students who are learning Spanish. One thing that really stuck out for me were the extremely vibrant, rich, colorful illustrations. The illustrations are paintings and they really jump right off the page at the reader. The book has a very hispanic/Spanish flavor to it. Overall, this was a very enjoyable book that can be used to stress bilingualism in the classroom.