The Skippyjon Jones Books

Judy Schachner provides bilingual fun (from the New York Times Book Review)

Ten miles from California’s border with Mexico, a new craze is spreading among the students at the Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School. Enthusiasm for Pokémon is fading, and Hello Kitty is also on the wane. Judy Schachner’s “Skippyjon Jones” books — about a Siamese kitten who thinks he’s a Chihuahua — are all the rage.

On a visit to the school this spring, I asked about 30 students, ages 6 and up, what they liked about the books (which also appeared on the New York Times best-seller list last fall). Many of the kids said they enjoyed the way Schachner slipped Spanish words into the English text, while a dozen more approved of her frequent use of the word “dude.” There were three who liked the appearance of dinosaurs, and two others who joined them but only because the dinosaurs were dancing.

For these dual-language students (they spend half the day learning in Spanish and half the day in English), it was clear that the Skippyjon Jones books — there are four so far, not counting board books and other spinoffs — were appealing mainly because of their intralinguistic wit, playfulness and musicality. While in English the diminutive is a preamble (little dog, little house), in Spanish the diminutive is a caboose…