Pobre Gatita

Last night Erica, Melissa, and I went to read cuentos (stories) to the Casa´s youngest children in La Matrenal. We read with them in small groups and then they all piled into their bunk beds and I read a story to the whole group, about 20 children. The book I read was the same one I read when we were here last year, La Primera Luna Llena De Gatita (a translation of Kevin Henkes´Caldecott winning Kitten´s First Full Moon). Last year, I was terrified to read in Spanish to such a big group, this year I was excited. I read the story with as much animation as I could muster and stumbled over only a few words. The catch phrase in the story is "pobre gatita" (poor kitten) and it is so fun to say! The children were all in fits of giggles as we said it as slowly and dramatically as we could. This morning a few of us headed back over to play and read again. The children all demanded that I say it over and over again. We began to say it together on the count of tres. What a wonderful thing to see children so excited over a bedtime story.