Elisa Amado, illustrated by Manuel Monroy,
What are you Doing?
Groundwood, 2011.

Rating: E

Before Chepito starts his first day of school,he runs outside to play. As he explores his Mexican village, he talks to many neighbours and asks, "What are you doing?". When he sees a man reading a newspaper, the curious little boy wonders "Why, why, why?". The man replies, "To see who won the game, of course". Chepito also encounters a girl enjoying a comic book, a tourist following a guidebook, a mechanic searching through a repair manual, a woman browsing a magazine and an archaeologist deciphering hieroglyphics. Everyone has their own reason for reading - some are searching for information and others are just having fun.

When Chepito arrives at school, he is excited to see a shelf of books in his classroom and can’t wait for his teacher to read a story. At home, Chepito shares a book with his younger sister and retells the story "by the pictures".

Manuel Monroy’s coloured pencil and watercolour illustrations have earthy brown and green tones. A variety of reading mentors are depicted: young and old, male and female. Children will relate to the examples of reading in everyday life.

This is a terrific book about emergent literacy skills and the joys of reading.

Thematic Links: Early Literacy; Reading

Linda Ludke
Vol. 17, number 1
October 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.