Training Day

March 1, 2021
El Toro needs to train for his big lucha libre match, but all he wants to do is sleep! Poor Kooky Dooky--�Qu� va hacer? What's he going to do? This quirky, early-reader spinoff of the �Vamos! series follows exasperated trainer Kooky Dooky as he pulls all the stops to get and keep El Toro out of bed. How about a big breakfast? Nope. After a gigantic belch, the sluggish luchador nose-dives under the covers. The rooster lures his trainee out of the bed with smelly shoes and a promise to go easy. Finally the training program gets results: Obstreperous chickens are caught by hand--er, hoof; the unplugged mechanical bull is dominated; the "Spiked Pi�atas of DOOM" are pulverized; junk cars are crushed; and abuelas are helped across the street. Todo es listo--all is ready. Today El Toro will obliterate The Wall (pun very much intended--one of The Wall's fans sports a distinctive blond 'do and orange skin). The unstoppable Ra�l the Third brings his border barrio to rip-roaring life with plenty of humor, embedded Spanish, and Chicano cultural references. Colorist Bay's creative enhancement of Ra�l's detail-rich frames continues their energetic collaboration. Action explodes throughout, though readers may be disappointed by the abrupt ending. In the simultaneously publishing Tag Team, El Toro and La Oink Oink team up to clean the arena following their thrashing of Donny Dollars and the Bald �guila. Comic-book and lucha libre fans alike will not tap out of this semibilingual smackdown. (Early reader. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 15, 2021
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* This bilingual reader kicks off--along with the simultaneously released Tag Team--the El Toro and Friends series, expanding the bustling, Mexican border-town world created in the award-winning �Vamos! picture books. Here, El Toro, a burly luchador, must train for his match against undefeated champion the Wall, but El Toro is reluctant to leave his bed. Enter his trainer, a bug-eyed chicken aptly named Kooky Dooky, who lays out a training regimen in an energizing series of double-spread thought bubbles. After the luchador finally rises, a Rocky-style neighborhood jog brings the inspiration he needs to complete Kooky Dooky's training and take down the Wall. In typical �Vamos! style, a vibrant world bursts to life on every page, filled with movement and a detailed host of cartoon characters, though text and images are simplified to accommodate beginning readers. Ra�l offers a lesson in visual literacy, utilizing speech bubbles and panels in addition to traditional narration. Select English phrases are echoed in the text--ones that bear repeating, thus maintaining a natural flow--but this title overcomes any linguistic barriers through its irresistible art.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2021
This easy-reader spinoff series dives into lucha libre action with the fantastical cast from the author's !Vamos! picture books (beginning with !Vamos!: Let's Go to the Market, rev. 3/20). In Training Day, Kooky Dooky, the ever-peppy and loony rooster, is determined to prepare El Toro for his big match against The Wall (who is undefeated), but El Toro wants to linger in bed and snooze. Eventually Kooky lures El Toro out of bed and all around town, where he chases chickens, smashes pinatas, and "helps las abuelitas cross the street," sharpening his senses, speed, and patience while basking in the motivational cheers from the town's surreal-looking creatures. Tag Team finds El Toro and his tag-team partner, La Oink Oink, the morning after their exhilarating win against the evil duo Donny Dollars and Bald Aguila, unable to savor triumph's afterglow because El Coliseo is a spectacular mess. With boom box amped, El Toro and La Oink Oink bust out their lucha moves, battling sticky floors and clogged toilets and getting the job done. Simple sentences and recognizable -- yet entirely fresh and original -- plot structures set up young readers for accomplishment. Visual and linguistic whirls and twirls match the fast-paced tempo of lucha libre, serving up dazzling Chicano English and details such as El Toro's "telefono watch-o," the "Punk Nopal" graffiti tag on a bathroom wall, and the revving lowrider onomatopoeia "RRREEOW!" of La Oink Oink's tricked-out ranfla. This pizzazz echoes throughout the chillante palette of matte violet, teal, and orange hues, animating the dynamic motion lines in comic-book-style drawings, rewarding attentive eyes and ears with endless detail and inside jokes.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)