Tumba

by Mira Canion

As the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration approaches, Alex is skittish. He should be excited but his grandma's creepy conversations with returning spirits is nerve-racking. Some say she is a witch and Alex is beginning to believe it. However, the discovery of grandpa's sketchbook could change his mind. Belonging to the genre of language learner literature this is an easy Spanish reader containing just 170 new vocabulary words and many English-Spanish cognates.

Genres: School, Spanish Literature, Read For School, Fiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2012

Reviews

[Amelie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think this was meant to actually have a good story, just something that teachers could use to teach new vocabulary.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I was going to give the book 4 stars, but the end was really lame and felt very contrived, even for a book written this simply. Most of the book was actually surprisingly engaging and informative despite the limited vocabulary and grammar. For that reason, I will be reading it with my students this year, but I think Canion could have done a much better job with the ending.

I also really liked the photos she included in the book. Our unit this month happens to be En la escuela, so not only is the book timely for El Dia de los Muertos, but it fits with the rest of our unit, too. It will be our first book and I think it is easy enough that my kids will be excited they can understand, but hard enough that there is some challenge there as well. I plan on using it with my Spanish 2s as I think it would be too much for my Spanish 1s.

[Aidan Kozak · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book lowkey trash.

[claire culligan · Rating 1 out of 5]

spoiler alert: alex está nervioso

[jayati babla]

bad as a book, but helpful for learning Spanish 2 I guess

[Bailey Solko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for Spanish and it's meant for a 1st grader so it obviously wasn't very interesting, but I was proud that I read it all and mostly understood it.

[caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

All-in-all, this wasn't a terrible book. My only major complaint is the fact that the cover (some skeleton dude in a baseball cap wandering around a cemetery on Day of the Dead) doesn't actually match any major plot points of the book.

[Thefemalearrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bully: ha! You’re a loser for drawing and being into art

Also the bully: writes an entire dis poem about this guy.

This book was alright. It served its purpose to help teach Spanish

[Pranav · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all, this book was clearly meant to be written for middle school Spanish students that are BEGINNING to learn Spanish. Our school district has been learning Spanish since the third grade and we are far more advanced for this book. Yet, our teacher decided that it is a good and challenging book for Dia de Los Muertos. Now, obviously I know I blamed that part on the teacher, but I think that the author also could have done a little better job in writing the book. The only word in the entire book that I didn't know was "cofre". However, thanks to her little translator in the back of the book, I got to know what it meant. Now, so far, the review looks like a 3 star rating. However, the book had a weak plot and the conflict wasn't clear at all. Now, I know this isn't supposed to be a proper Spanish novel, but if you are going to write for middle-schoolers, at least make a good plot. Also, it felt as if she got lazy going towards the end. She explained the characters and all very well in the beginning. She added lots and lots of description. She developed the character of Alex and David well, but when she got to Nora, she couldn't give us a nice photo or an accurate image of how Nora looked. Whereas, we saw that Alex had glasses, and David had a masculine and muscular build to him. From the middle, the book just got worse. First, she tried to add Sergio into every single thing she could. Sergio was in literally every single conflict. That is not how a book works. They have many conflicts some, being person v.s. self, person v.s. nature, and many other types. However, hers were only person v.s. person. The books ending was so rushed. Sergio's personality changed in an instant and then they all became friends. Like how does that relate to anything we ever said? All in all, I think this book could have been written much better. This book is more for the elementary school students because of the way it was written. It's for children, and not for more mature children. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this book to any middle school student because of the maturity level basically.

[Yoodoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhhh...
Im a highschooler. Though I AM in beginner spanish it was incredibly boring and horrible to read. Sure, the spanish was very easy to read and I could actually read the whole thing even though Im still a begnner in my first quarter of ever taking spanish. HOWEVER, the plot was boring and seemed as if it was written for elementary students. Absolutely hated this book. Horrible plot, lazy writing, and extremely sloppy! But I did add a star for the fact that my beginner self was able to read this easily.

[Julie Exendine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good beginning book for Spanish students. Book gives a little culture and takes place during Dia de Los Muertos and a little history by briefly talking about the Mexican Revolution. The vocabulary was easy and repetitive and my students felt a sense of accomplishment after reading the entire novel and understanding it.

[Meg Bemis · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡No podía creer este libro! El romance entre Alex y David no estaba muy desarrollado y hablaban más de Sergio que de David. El final fue muy apresurado y me enojó que Sergio se redimiera tan rápido después de haber sido un idiota con Alex y Nora. Sin embargo, me gustó que el arco del personaje de Alex viera una disminución en su ansiedad.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy to read Spanish reader. You can definitely do a lot with Día de los Muertos to add culture to class. The story line wasn't my absolute favorite, but I realize there are many limitations with easy readers.

[Sky_23 · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ☆
It wasn't bad but it just did not have a plot. I didn't expect it to have one since it is very short. I had to read this for school but otherwise I wouldn't have read it. The story is juvenile but it is also a bit informative. It was better than I expected though.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best. End could have been better as well, as it was very see-through.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tumba was a Spanish book about a boy whos scared of bad and spirits. The book was filled with amazement and surprises and I loved reading Spanish.

[EXTRAPACK · Rating 1 out of 5]

YO THIS BOOK IS SO BADDDDDDDDD THAT I SUBBED TO https://www.youtube.com/user/ksh4477/...

[Rory · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s the 2nd spanish book I’ve very read.

[Christian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad

[Chonk CHeeEker · Rating 1 out of 5]

The chonkiest ckeekeriest speddest dumbest most terrifyingly trash horrible book ever.

[Sarah (Cress) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read this for Spanish class.

[Dpvisozja · Rating 1 out of 5]

literally ass

[Lo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the second worst book I have read all year. It was like 2 pages long and in Spanish but I’m still counting it.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for learning Spanish!

[Liv Sorenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

alex has severe trust issues

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little book to start your journey learning Spanish.

[julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

lol

[Natalia]

Read during Free Choice Reading in Spanish 2.

[Meredith Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's for school bruh

[Lila Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, it was a simply story, good for people learning Spanish. Though, I kinda wish that something bad had happened to Sergio.