I assumed that Spanish Is the Language of My Family would take the format of “this is my family, and we speak Spanish” and then a list of wonderful Spanish words such as an alphabet book might give or beginning Spanish words would be given. Well, we get the wonderful words, but also a bit more. There is a spelling bee and a history lesson on how many children (we will learn from the 1930s to 1960s) that were not allowed to speak Spanish outside of their homes. And in fact, if caught speaking Spanish in school, they could be severally punished for it. The young narrator of the story learns of his family’s history as he studies with his grandmother to learn the Spanish words, he does not know for his classes Spanish spelling bee.
That could be the end of things, but we get an author afterwards. Michael Genhart gives us the background to the situation. And the history of the Spanish Spelling Bee, that is only a few decades old if that. Now, anyone who can win that is pretty darn smart as you do not just spell the word but must let them know the any of the special characters and such that the language includes. And all of this makes this book of Michael Genhart special. I have not seen anything like it.
This is a book about family pride and that comes out with the illustrations of John Parra. The colors are bold, and bright and detailed to show things in a lighthearted manner, but still get the points across. The afterwards shows us more of what happened, and the history of the spelling be the narrator is partaking in.
