Kirkus Reviews:
The runaway cookie in this Mexican bakery is a soft, brown, stubby-tailed piglet as impertinently bold and smug in his continual escape as his Gingerbread Boy cousin. “Chase me! Chase me down the street. But this is one piggy you won’t get to eat! / ¡Córrele, córrele! ¡Y Córrele más! ¡Soy el cochinito que jamás comerás!” This bouncy dual refrain extends the familiar cumulative text, rendered in both English and Spanish, as piggy manages to elude Marta the baker, Lorenzo the mechanic, Mamá Nita the beautician, Joaquín the telephone repairman and a host of other neighborhood adults—until he is outsmarted by Rosa, a little girl on her way to school, who foxily “helps him” cross the street. Safely tucked into her backpack, piggy is both a welcome surprise and an excuse for Rosa’s lateness to class. Deep opaque acrylic paintings of a colorful barrio and its residents in pursuit add the right amount of cultural flavor to this vivid Latino retelling. Recipe appended. (Picture book. 3-6)

Publishers Weekly:
The story of The Gingerbread Man gets a lively Mexican makeover in this bilingual tale, with the title role filled by a freshly baked cochinito cookie that escapes a bakery after being taken out of the oven. Piggy soon has the entire neighborhood in pursuit: a mechanic, salon owner, bus driver, and others all offer to keep Piggy safe, but he’s rightfully wary of the steaming mugs of coffee they have handy. “Chase me! Chase me down the street. But this is one piggy you won’t get to eat” is his insouciant refrain (though he eventually gets his just desserts). A recipe is included, and given the story, the last step might be the most important: “Place in airtight container.”

.

Return to Main Reviews page