Juan Bobo: Four Folktales from Puerto Rico

by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Ernesto Ramos Nieves (Illustrator)

Mama puts Juan Bobo to work whenever he is having a good time. But he always finds a way to make work fun -- like using baskets instead of buckets to carry water, or sprinkling the pig with Mama's favorite perfume.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Latinx, Humor, Cultural, Folk Tales

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand is a national award winning author of eleven books for children and young adults. She teaches writing at the Whidbey Island MFA, a program of Northwest Literary Arts, at Writers in the Schools, a program of Oregon Literary Arts, and at Wordstock.

In 2008, The Oregon Library Association's Children's Division gave her the Evelyn Lampman Award for her significant contribution to the children of Oregon in the field of children's literature.

Bernier-Grand was born in Puerto Rico but lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Jeremy Grand, and her bilingual dog, Lily.

(source)

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four Puerto Rican folktales concerning Juan Bobo - that foolish hero who manages to come out on top at the end of every story, despite a series of misunderstandings and mistakes - are collected in this book aimed at beginning readers. Simply told, with humor and heart, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand's mini-anthology is sure to keep young readers entertained. Here, in The Best Way to Carry Water, they will learn that baskets, while lighter than buckets, are not as useful when it comes to transporting liquids. In A Pig In Sunday Clothes, which follows Juan's hilarious attempts to prepare his mother's pig for church, and Do Not Sneeze, Do Not Scratch...Do Not Eat!, in which our hero experiences a series of dinner-table miscommunications, they will find much to reduce them to giggling; while, in A Dime a Jug, they will be left with the happy assurance that all turned out well in the end...

The I Can Read Books of my own childhood were almost universally excellent, so I was glad to see that Juan Bobo, published long after I graduated from the beginning reader, holds up that tradition of high quality. The simple narrative reads well, and the accompanying illustrations by Ernesto Ramos Nieves, while not really to my taste, are colorful, and attention-grabbing. All in all, a very engaging title, although I did wonder why the Spanish versions of the stories were relegated to an appendix at the back of the book, as I think a bi-lingual approach would have worked very well here.

[Alysses · Rating 4 out of 5]

3- 3.5

The entire time I kept thinking this would read so much better in Spanish. I was right. HA!

Juan Bobo is known in Puerto Rico to do ridiculous things and if you do a ridiculous thing, you too will be called a bobo or boba. I don't know if people unfamiliar with the culture will get these stories or understand that they are meant to be outlandish and ridiculous is nature. In general, Puerto Rican people like to laugh and make jokes of everything. With that said, these tales are better received narrated rather than read on paper.

If you wait until the end, you get the same four tales in Spanish.

Enjoy!!

[Jolynne Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folk Tale, Silly protagonist, Puerto Rican - I found these tales charming. In the vein of Silly Willy and Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, their antics are funny, not mean-spirited, and Juan Bobo always ends up okay. I found this book as I was trying to learn more about Pura Belpre. In the back of this edition, the stories are translated back into simple Spanish. This book is an I Can Read Book and would be appropriate for a late first grader or second grader to read on their own.

[RLL22017 Jackie Reynoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains four different Juan Bobo tales that will definitely make children laugh. Juan Bobo somehow always manages to turn all his tasks into fun adventures. I really enjoyed reading this book because it reminded me of my childhood when my mother would make me help her cook, do chores, and even sell candy and gelatins at our neighborhood park. Recommended for K-3rd

[Nahira]

This folk tales of Juan Bobo are a great read for kids since they can relate to his silly visions of what is the right thing to do. Juan Bobo always want to help and when he is helping funny things happen, like a pig dressed like a lady. I love this stories because at some point in our lives we all have been a Juan Bobo.

[Laura Renick-Butera · Rating 4 out of 5]

for Goodreads repository

[Rll52014_barb_zachwieja · Rating 3 out of 5]

These seem like classic Puerto Rican folktales, but I am not of that culture, so I cannot say for sure. The author and the illustrator (Carmen T. Bernier-Grand and Ernesto Ramos Nieves, respectively), are from a Puerto Rican heritage, I believe. I bet these are tales they've heard in one form or another throughout their own childhoods, so they probably cherish them. I, on the other hand, don't have much to cherish. Juan Bobo is a "numb skull," or as the author puts it, a "noodle head." It's hard for me to suspend disbelief and accept that someone could be as simple-minded and foolish as Juan Bobo. He thinks an open-weave basket is perfect for carrying water. He dresses a pig in his mother's finest to go to church. He tries to sell jugs of syrups to four flies he mistakes for the "little widows" coming from church. And he has terrible table manners at a woman's house for dinner. The stories are supposed to be humorous, but I guess as an adult this is NOT my kind of humor. The illustrations are flat 2-dimensional color pieces of colorful, traditional-looking art. However, I do not find them particularly charming. The stories are just "o.k." in my opinion, and they would be good for beginning or struggling readers because they are a Level 3 "I can read book" by Harper Trophy books. It was published in 1994, so it's 20 years old and looks a little dated. --Barb

[Ashley Puchala · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these books in 10 minutes. As an adult it is a very easy read. I thought these folktales were pretty cute and funny. Juan Bobo is a funny kid who tries to be helpful but is just too goofy for it.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book with four tales about Juan Bobo and his antics. Clever and funny.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are fun stories about a very silly young boy who gets into all kinds of odd situations through misunderstandings. This would work well with a unit about noodlehead tales.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The boys really enjoyed these goofy stories, especially hearing them first in English and then in Spanish.

[Renee Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four Juan Bobo folk tales for the I Can Read level.