European
Picture 
Book
Collection

Country: Spain
Language: Spanish
Title: Una fiesta bajo las estrellas (A party under the stars)
Author: Queta García
Illustrator: Ignasi Blanch
Publisher: Intermón Oxfam
ISBN: 84-8452-051-x
Chosen by: Eduardo Encabo, Departamento Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Murcia, Spain .

Rationale for Choice:
This book was chosen for BARFIE because it emphasizes the importance of friendship with those who are different from us, and perfectly combines text and images.

Re-telling
In the ‘Espuma' galaxy one of its worlds, the planet ‘Aldea', is going to be extinguished because of carelessness. Nil, Aitana and Clara have to prevent this, in a story of cooperation between inanimate elements to save the planet. They have to organize a party in which there will be friendship and mutual help with other distant neighbours

Translation:
In the big and rich galaxy named ESPUMA, different worlds that have never met each other live together. In one of them, the planet ALDEA, there is a great revolution.

The few citizens from this nice, big but empty globe have seen how, little by little, their mountains and valleys had been depopulated. People from ALDEA have decided to explore space, and have travelled toward other universes. The big and fertile lands, its fields, rivers and seas are neglected because there are no people that work in and care about them. Therefore, flora and fauna could be extinguished and this nice globe would become into a lonely desert.

X

If they do not search for a solution, ALDEA will die. No more flowers, birds singing, or hens laying eggs... No more life or people dancing, playing or repopulating the world.

But, finally, one day the town´s assembly decides to put a stop to this desolation and work together. A party must be organized, the GREAT PARTY OF VISITORS, to establish cooperation and friendship with neighbours from far.

NIL, AITANA and CLARA are the committee of celebration. Ancient people trust in them to do this task, because these children are the happiest and cleverest on this planet.

The work will not be easy. Receptions, plays, dances... and they have to send, by interstellar post, millions of invitations.

Apart from this, CLARA and AITANA are not very convinced. They do not like to bring a lot of unknown people to the galaxy.

- I am sure they are different from us and we have not got any things in common- AITANA says worriedly.

- Their customs could be strange- CLARA comments

But NIL tells them that it is better: the more different people, the more interesting will be the experience.

X

Finally, the day has come and ALDEA airport begins to fill up with space bubbles, coming from all the worlds and planets of the ESPUMA galaxy.

The first to land are a very numerous group from the ARENA satellite. CLARA, NIL and AITANA are the welcoming committee, they cannot believe what they are seeing. Men, women and children from ARENA are small and brown. Their bodies, formed of rings, look like cheese balls. After the greetings, they explain to their new friends that they work, drilling the land to obtain stones and materials to build their houses and their world. Because of this, they look that way.

X

The GLOBO SUBMARINO inhabitants have come after the ARENA inhabitants. A young guy with big eyes, comes closer to shake the hands of the three friends that watch him amazed. His name is DÁTIL DE MAR and he introduces them to his family. People from MAR are silver and slippery, who talk through their scales and always move their fins. They nurse young fishes and farm algae, and they have got various plantations what in give food to the whole planet.

The GLOBO SUBMARINO inhabitants have come after the ARENA inhabitants. A young guy with big eyes, comes closer to shake the hands of the three friends that watch him amazed. His name is DÁTIL DE MAR and he introduces them to his family. People from MAR are silver and slippery, who talk through their scales and always move their fins. They nurse young fishes and farm algae, and they have got various plantations what in give food to the whole planet. X

Things couldn´t have gone better. ALDEA airport is very animated and there are different people coming from different places in the galaxy. CLARA, NIL and AITANA are amazed. Their doubts have disappeared because everybody is very pleasant.

X

At that moment inhabitants from ÁRBOL are come. Tall and green, they are accompanied by different animals that our friends haven´t seen before. Their arms are like strong and nervous lines. POTOS shakes the hands of the welcoming committee and introduce their travel partners:- In our world we take care of animals and plants. Flowers and trees are very important for our survival. They give us food and oxygen to live.

Men from ÁRBOL speak without opening their mouths, softly, almost a whisper, and CLARA thinks that she has never seen a beings strange as that. However, these, tall and green beings are good to her and she immediately starts to play with the monkeys that accompanied them.

X

The afternoon is coming to an end in ALDEA airport. The place is full of citizens and children, from all over the ESPUMA galaxy. They have come from COLA DE COMETA, and are white and brilliant, and their work is to illuminate the sky during the day and turn it off at night. And citizens from SORBETE planet have come too; they are round and tubby. Their mission is to make ice creams, cool drinks, and sweets to make parties happy. They have brought delicious desserts and cakes which they have made.

X

Finally, the party starts. SORBETES and ALDEANOS, ÁRBOLES and DÁTILES DE MAR, COLAS DE COMETA and ARENAS, dance, eat and talk, under the moonlight. Together they see the big marvellous world which is host to them. Some of them stay there. To repopulate ALDEA, they bring new animals, new plants, and helping hands to make the planet live again.

NB This is a working translation for educational purpose only.

Activities for use in school:

1. Ask your pupils to do the following vocabulary activities:

•  Write the words that you don´t know in a personal dictionary.

•  Look up the words in a dictionary. This is especially fun for children who have access to a computer dictionary. Write the definitions.

•  Use the definitions to make a crossword puzzle with the words.

•  Make a picture dictionary of the words.

•  Write a paragraph using as many of the words as you can.

•  In the book, find the sentences which contain the words. Copy them neatly, leaving a blank where the vocabulary word would be. Have a partner fill in the blanks.

Through analysing the texts, we will find which words are discriminatory. Then we will create a glossary to see the importance of these words.

2. Analyse the characters in the book by:

•  Read the book with your students and then, either on the blackboard or flipchart, categorize the different characters eg good, bad, funny, happy etc.

•  Once the characters have been put into groups, get students to think of all the adjectives that describe each one (either from the text or their own vocabularies).

•  Discuss which characters they like/don't like and why. Jot these reasons down, too.

•  Get them to write a short passage in which they explain why they like the characters or why not, using the vocabulary that you have put on the board.

•  Finally, ask them to write character descriptions of famous people they know in the real world, perhaps using some of the descriptive language that you have discussed.

They can then get a partner to guess who they are!

3. Ideas fro Creative Writing:

Writing prompts:

•  Which was the best party you ever went to?

How many people from different countries do you know?

Try to include new characters in this story and make a different ending.

4. Intercultural activities:

•  Recall a time from your own schooling when you felt especially included in a particular class.

•  Recall a situation when you felt especially excluded. Share each other's stories.

Make brief notes about both kinds of stories. (What makes you feel included? What makes you feel left out?).

Reflection: Do you know anybody who always seems to be left out of things? How might you help them to become more integrated?

NB Further literature and language-based activities can be found in
Picture Books sans Frontières available from tb@trentham-books.co.uk
or www.amazon.co.uk