Pacho Nacho

by Silvia López, Pablo Pino (Illustrator)

Overview

Mama and Papa could not agree on a name for their first baby, and everyone in the family had an opinion. That's how the name Pacho-Nacho-Nico-Tico-Melo-Felo-Kiko-Rico came to be, and Pacho's parents insisted that everyone use his full name. But when Pacho finds himself in trouble, his younger brother, Juan, must quickly find help, which isn't easy when you have to keep saying Pacho-Nacho-Nico-Tico-Melo-Felo-Kiko-Rico. Author Silvia Lopez highlights family values, community connections, and brotherly love in this interactive, energetic, and silly picture book. Pacho Nacho is based on an old Japanese folktale and includes Spanish words and phrases and multicultural settings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684460984
Publisher:	Capstone Editions
Publication date:	02/01/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	150,680
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

A Cuba native raised in Miami, Silvia López served as children's librarian at schools and public libraries for over three decades. Her debut picture book, Just Right Family: An Adoption Story was released in March 2018, with Handimals: Animals in Art and Nature and Selena Quintanilla: Queen of Tejano Music following. Siliva currently resides in Miami.

Pablo Pino was born in August 1981 in Buenos Aries, Agrentina. He grew up watching cartoons, playing football and drawing a lot. These days, he doesn't watch as much TV and only plays football once a week, but still has the joy of painting every day. Why? Because for the last 10 years, he's been working as a professional illustrator for different print media. What he enjoys the most is illustrating books for children and teenagers. Besides the 50 published books Pablo's illustrated, he also does character designs, board games and collaborates on designs for schoolbooks and magazines with various worldwide publishing companies. Pablo is self-taught and his illustrations are mostly computer drawn, but he always adds textures that he makes with pencils, crayons, acrylics and pretty much any material that lets him gets messy like when he was child.

Interviews

Showcases extended family values, community connections, and brotherly love; Introduces some simple Spanish words and multicultural settings, filling the need for multicultural books; Rhyming, plot repetitions, and the sprinkling of Spanish words make this read-aloud perfect for audience interaction and participation; Hits common core themes of second-language learning and classic folktales

Editorial Reviews

Unable to agree on a single name, a family calls their first kid Pacho-Nacho-Nico-Tico-Melo-Felo-Kiko-Rico. So what happens when he’s in trouble and his brother Juan has to call for help? This kind of story originated as a Japanese folktale. If Tikki Tikki Tembo makes you feel guilty because you love the rhymes and hate the racism, good news! This has a lot of the same beats and some pretty amusing rhymes to boot. Probably it would take some extensive practice before you could do it in a storytime, but don’t give up on that dream. It’s interesting because unlike Tikki Tikki Tembo, this book cut out a beat in the story. Originally the sibling with the short name falls in first and THEN the kid with the long one. An interesting change in an interesting book.

A Fuse 8 Production, 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2020 Fairy, Folk, and Religious Tales - Elizabeth Bird

López gives a Spanish twist to an old Japanese folktale about a boy with an extraordinarily long name. . . .Argentinian illustrator Pino’s cartoonish artwork is colorful and energetic, effectively conveying the story’s high jinks. This book is a wonderful read-aloud filled with rhyme and repetition. A glossary helpfully defines the Spanish words peppered throughout the story, and an author's note offers background on the original tale.

Booklist

01/01/2020

PreS-Gr 2—A story about a Mexican boy whose long name almost results in a tragic accident. Pacho-Nacho-Nico-Tico-Melo-Felo-Kiko-Rico is given his name when his parents ask their extended family for ideas for the perfect moniker for their firstborn. From then on, everyone in the village is encouraged to call the boy by his extended beautiful, melodic name. When Mama and Papa have a second son, he is simply named Juan. One day, when the boys are older, they decide to go fishing at the nearby river. Pacho-Nacho finds himself hanging from a broken branch over the river. As Juan runs to find help, he is forced to use his brother's beautiful long name, thus wasting precious time. Finally, Papa and the carpenter row out to the river and help the lad to safety. After that, wisely enough, long extended names are never used again. The text is sprinkled with Spanish words throughout and Pino's colorful cartoon artwork sets the scene in a rural, folkloric Mexican landscape. A Spanish word list and an author's note discussing stories with similar plots are appended. VERDICT Youngsters will get a kick out of saying the main character's name while enjoying this entertaining story, perfect to share at storytimes and during Hispanic Heritage Month.—Martha Rico, Yselta ISD, TX

School Library Journal

2019-10-09
Librarian and author López puts a Latin American twist on a classic silly story.

When Mamá and Papá welcome their first child, no one can decide on a name. Rather than pick just one, they decide to string together all the suggestions from the abuelos and abuelas, tíos and tías, primos and primas, along with their own favorite names into the tongue-tripping "Pacho-Nacho-Nico-Tico-Melo-Felo-Kiko-Rico." The family and the community are proud of the name and the little boy who carries it. A new son, Juan, later joins the happy family. All goes well until, when his older brother is threatened by dangerously swift waters, young Juan is hindered in his urgent quest for help by his elder brother's extensive and cumbersome name. Though Pacho Nacho's name is a string of popular Spanish nicknames, astute readers will quickly recognize the similarities to the tale of Tikki-Tikki-Tembo, itself based on a Japanese folktale, a partial history of which is included in the author's note. Bright cartoon illustrations by Pino seem to set the story in what is now the United States Southwest and lend a cinematic theatricality. A glossary of Spanish vocabulary folded into the text is appended.

As with the source material, a read-aloud that will have young audiences in stiches. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews