Perennial favorite read aloud. Great fun!!

I must express my gratitude to the Picture Book Club at the Children's Books group. I. Never. Would. Have. Picked. This. Book. Up. And. Read. It. Never.

It turns out from a note on the back inside cover that the Cuban Cockroach, Panclora nivea, has an iridescent green coat/beautiful and is a vegetarian, which wsa not quite enough to sell me but made me less squeamish.

However, the book charmed me.

Oh, I chortled my way through it. It was amusing, and heartwarming too. Interspecies marriage, hmm, but somehow it ended up working.

The illustrations are strikingly beautiful, really special.

What a pleasant surprise!

What a great story - Martina, the beautiful cockroach, is ready to seek a husband now that she is 21 years old. Her grandmother gives her some unusual advice on how to proceed with her search. Great illustrations, and fun story.

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale
By Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael Austin
Published July 1st 2007 by Peachtree Publishers
Picture book, multi-cultural, folktale
-Martina, a young cockroach about to marry, knows nothing about love or how to find it. Suitors come, but only for her beauty and none of them can pass the family ‘coffee test’. Only when a humble mouse comes does Martina see true love.
-This is a great authentic folktale with a message about important qualities in someone, not their wealth or looks, but character. I picked it because I love the story, the cultural aspect, and the message.

Great book for girls to read! You have to be smart when there are suitors. A fun picture book with a catchy refrain. I remember hearing the author speak at a children's literature conference in Myrtle Beach. She was very entertaining. I've enjoyed her books the Library Dragon and The Yellow Star.

This is a very fun tale of a young cockroach using a sneaky trick to choose her mate. The trick is from her Cuban grandmother and seems to be a very good one to use when weeding out the not-so-good husband material. I loved the rich illustrations too.

Great story for kids. To find the perfect mate, spill coffee on his shoes!

Genre: Folktale Reading level: Ages 4-8
One might think this is a story about vanity, but fear not! It is a moral tale about finding a good mate by testing their mettle. Martina is given gifts to enhance her beauty from her female relatives, but gets the best gift of all from her grandmother: the gift of wisdom. Various suitors are introduced and dismissed for their stereotypical traits, the rooster for his vanity, the pig for his boorishness, and the lizard for his cold-bloodedness. In the end, the meek mouse inherits Martina with his kind ways and clever use of her own grandmother's test. Oops, I’ve given away the ending! But that shouldn’t stop you from finding out for yourself how Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach chooses the perfect husband. This bilingual tale is retold by Carmen Agra Deedy for a younger audience, but the subtle humor and play on words will delight older readers. Michael Austin’s gorgeous full-color illustrations are packed with action and funny facial expressions. His use of Cuban items in the art is clever. We see a stairway made of cigar boxes, Maja powder box used as a stool, and a Royal Violet perfume bottle as a dressing table. Historic Cuban architecture is featured in the background of the drawings. Bright and festive, the pictures manage to convey a story told by night with shadows and shaded backgrounds. Although lacking a source note, one can assume from the dedication to Deedy’s Abuelas that she learned this tale at the knee of the experts.
Other tales of beautiful girls:
Ella enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
Mufaro’s beautiful daughters: an African folktale, John Steptoe
Rapunzel, Paul O, Zelinsky

LET ME TELL YOU, there is absolutely nothing cute or beautiful about a cockroach.

Yet, this was a beautiful graphic/picture book with a lovely mixture of art and a beautiful tale with a bit of Spanish sprinkled in.

I loved it.