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leslie_d's review
3.0
When teacher Mrs. Cortez tells the children to choose their costumes for an upcoming Cinco de Mayo reenactment, Ricky knows exactly what he wants to wear: the big bushy mustache. With the mustache, so much like his father’s, maybe no one will say he looks like his mother anymore. And it’s true that people appear to treat him differently as he wears the mustache home from school, wending his way through a diversely populated neighborhood.
Trouble comes when he loses the mustache, which really wasn’t his to wear outside of the school reenactment–but you get the doubling going on in the story. He was eager to reenact his father. Ricky sits on his father’s lap and tells him his troubles, and the parents greet him the next morning with a surprising solution.
The illustrations contribute to a comic energy that lend the story its child-likeness. The characterizations are engaging and the movement toward the domestic spaces, the arms of the family, is a movement toward the heart of the story where there is no pretending, no disguising, certainly no place for acting.
Big Bushy Mustache is a lot of fun. It dispenses the right amounts of childhood humor and familial tenderness.
————
recommending...The relationship of the father/son here brought Alvin Ho to mind; so if you are familiar with Lenore Look’s series, Big Bushy Mustache is one to add to reading times, and vice versa.
of note: In looking for images, I noticed Big Bushy Mustache is often used in the classroom for educational purposes with a side of play. This may or may not excite you. If it doesn’t, remember that Soto & Cepeda are really quite entertaining and forget mention of classroom guides.
L (omphaloskepsis)
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/for-before-facial-hair-maybe-after/
Trouble comes when he loses the mustache, which really wasn’t his to wear outside of the school reenactment–but you get the doubling going on in the story. He was eager to reenact his father. Ricky sits on his father’s lap and tells him his troubles, and the parents greet him the next morning with a surprising solution.
The illustrations contribute to a comic energy that lend the story its child-likeness. The characterizations are engaging and the movement toward the domestic spaces, the arms of the family, is a movement toward the heart of the story where there is no pretending, no disguising, certainly no place for acting.
Big Bushy Mustache is a lot of fun. It dispenses the right amounts of childhood humor and familial tenderness.
————
recommending...The relationship of the father/son here brought Alvin Ho to mind; so if you are familiar with Lenore Look’s series, Big Bushy Mustache is one to add to reading times, and vice versa.
of note: In looking for images, I noticed Big Bushy Mustache is often used in the classroom for educational purposes with a side of play. This may or may not excite you. If it doesn’t, remember that Soto & Cepeda are really quite entertaining and forget mention of classroom guides.
L (omphaloskepsis)
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/for-before-facial-hair-maybe-after/
eirenophile's review
3.0
I liked it. It felt pretty familiar after reading [b:The Skirt|252945|The Skirt|Gary Soto|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388853851s/252945.jpg|245113] recently, but with a boy and short form. Sweet family, sweet story.
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