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MultiCultural Review

...Carlson's collection of seven plays is a fine addition of classic and modern plays that are ready for the school or classroom stage. Teachers will find that the plays represent a variety of Hispanic cultures and dialects. The playwrights represent the finest in their category from Spanish and Latin American greats like Federico Garcia Lorca and Alfonsina Storni to contemporary American writers like Gary Soto, Pura Belpre, and Oscar Hijuelos.

The plays are perfect for young actors, and teachers will find they can be staged with a minimum of sets and costumes...The bilingual format is ideal for different types of classrooms ranging from regular English classrooms to bilingual and even middle schools with Spanish language offerings. I highly recomend this book for the school library or classroom, and let the acting begin!

Children's Literature - Susan Hepler

Seven plays published here for the first time in English also appear in Spanish (two were previously published in Spanish) and may be read or performed by any age group, although the audience seems primarily middle schoolers or those in at least a second-year Spanish class. Plays vary from contemporary situations to poetic musings and differ in length from three pages to about a dozen pages, making these suitable for quick readings. Will middle schoolers or high school students respond favorably to these plays? Perhaps. A Gary Soto story concerns a boy who gives up his new shoes to an immigrant uncle who's about to look for work (but the shoes pinched anyhow) while Denise Ruiz captures the taunts and arguments of girls competing in jump-roping but really establishing pecking orders. Garcia Lorca's "The Girl Who Waters Basil" and the "Very Inquisitive Prince" and a Christmas play by Oscar Hijuelos are nearly nonsense and will cause readers to shrug. A mime play by Alfonsina Storni makes one wonder at the language component intentions. While the contributors are well known for other writings, all in all, these efforts seem forced, fanciful, flat and written to fit the need of the collection.