Don’t Eat Me, Chupacabra is one of those neat books where you might not like it but someone else will. It is funny but maybe over the top for some. The beginning reader format does make it a good book for schools. Plus, as an adult, if you want to brush up on some Spanish you can do that as well. However, as I read the readers copy there was no pronunciation guide. I am not sure if there will be in a final edition. This makes it hard for anyone who is unfamiliar with the language to pick up on the Spanish words. Though you will understand context without too much issue.
Kyle and Derek Sullivan take a picky-eater story and turn it around a little bit: the young Chupacabra only wants to eat goat; the goat (as you can imagine) does not want to be eaten and takes him to Grandmother Goat who knows what to do with a picky eater. I am not sure if this book has “digestible Spanish vocabulary” but it does have vocabulary. The very young reader might be upset at the goat getting a chomp on the butt (or if they are like me, laugh a little too hard at that image) but it is very much in the style of Billy Goats Gruff, therefore nothing scarier than that is on the page.
The extremely bright, cartoonish illustrations also will curve any “scary” that might pop up. With that said, it can be a holiday read for Halloween, but also could be an anytime read. I did miss the fact that it is supposed to be set in Puerto Rico, but this might be more obvious with people familiar with the country while browsing the illustrations.
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