Bravo, Chico Canta! Bravo!

Chico Canta, the youngest of 12, is a tiny, mischievous, fearless mouse who lives with his family in an old theater. They love to go upstairs to see the plays and echo the audience shouting, "Bravo, bravo!" as the curtain falls. Mrs. Canta speaks many languages -- not only English, Spanish, and Italian, but Spider, Cricket, and Moth as well. And she encourages her children to develop their own language skills. "Bilingual, bravo!" she is always telling them. One evening, after a wonderful performance of The Three Little Pigs, the mouse family narrowly escapes Little Gato-Gato. But, undaunted and inspired by the production, they decide to mount their own version of the play. On opening night, however, it is tiny Chico who is the star of the show when he spots Little Gato-Gato in the shadows and uses his own special gift for languages to avert disaster.

"Tiny Chico Canta was never where he should be -- at the end of the line. Sometimes he was sleeping in his little bed. Sometimes he had crawled into the cookie jar. Sometimes he was hanging from the lampshade. 'Chiiiiiiicoooooo,' sang Mrs. Canta as everyone scurried through the house . . ." -- from the book Excerpted from Bravo, Chico Canta! Bravo! by Pat Mora, Libby Martinez All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.