The Pet Parade of Santa Fe Fiesta (or Desfile de los Niños) is the inspiration for Judith Torres’ new picture book “An Alphabet Pet Parade in Topsy-Turvy Town, Population 26”.
Torres, born and raised in Santa Fe, has many fond memories of the festival. But the event that remains the liveliest is the Pet Parade, “where you can see the other kids and their animals running around the square,” she said in a phone interview from her home in central California.
These memories stuck in her mind when she started writing “An Alphabet Pet Parade”.
It is a fun, attractive picture book for children aged 3 to 8 years or for adults to read aloud. The plot is about a young girl named Zoe who has her grandfather’s permission to have a pet. Permission is granted after Zoe promises to feed, groom, and love her undecided pet.
Zoe participates in the town’s pet parade to see what weird and wonderful animals other children take on into the parade. Page by page, readers see 25 of the 26 alphabetically sorted animals before Zoe’s pet is revealed. It’s quite a surprise.
Scattered through the book is a repeated reference to Zoe’s unnamed “little creature that has strayed from the crowd into the parade …”
The type of pets and the names of the pet owners represent letters of the alphabet. Here are some of the owners and their pets: (for F) “Fanny F. Forest, who was unusually afraid of trees, flaunted her fox … (for G) George G. Goodday, the grumpiest guy in town, galloped to his gazelle next … (for N) Natasha N. Noisy, who never raised her voice, nudged her newt … ”
In fact, some pets are quite opaque. There is the quoll, a small marsupial found in the forests of Australia and New Guinea; the vicuna, a wild cousin of the llama found in the mountains of South America; and the Xenops, a bird commonly found in tropical rainforests in Latin America.
Oh, because the letter U is the mythical unicorn unleashed by its owner Ulysses U. Underdog.
Neither animal is a dog likely to be seen in costume in the Santa Fes Pet Parade.
Torres’ book is also pleasantly educational. In addition to promoting interest in the alphabet and in various members of the animal kingdom, the author specifically weaves in other concepts that are intended to help children with language development and literacy. Concepts such as action verbs, opposites, word and letter sounds and alliteration.
Torres knows a thing or two about language development. Today she is half retired, is a reading specialist, teacher of English as a second language and speech therapist for speech therapy. Her expertise lies in language development and language acquisition.
“In my case, I’ve mainly worked with preschoolers who have language delays and disorders,” she said. Delays, Torres said, relates to a child who, for some reason, fails to speak a certain number of words at a certain age.
On the back of the book is a glossary of the animals referred to in the story, with the alphabet in upper and lower case and a photo of the accompanying animal. (The glossary inserts zebra as the animal for Z.)
The glossary is followed by two pages with questions that the children can ask to learn more about the story, letters, sounds and the alphabet.
The book introduces an ethnically diverse community.
Christiane Engel is the illustrator of “An Alphabet Pet Parade”.
Engel’s illustrations are made endearing by their warm, contrasting colors against the background of flat-roofed mud houses à la Santa Fe.
A native of Santa Fein and author Judith Torres.
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