Noelle’s Treasure Tale: A New Magically Mysterious Adventure Reviews
Noelle’s Treasure Tale: A New Magically Mysterious Adventure
Noelle the Bulldog is back for another magically mysterious adventure! She’s on a holiday visit with her family to the exotic Treasure Coast of Florida when she hears exciting news. There’s a long-lost pirate ship full of treasure under the sand! Noelle can’t wait to find it. On her high-spirited journey she befriends a crusty but lovable crab and other mysterious new animals. And, most importantly, she discovers the “real” treasure of the Treasure Coast! Five-time Grammy® Award-winning singer-songwriter and New York Times bestselling author Gloria Estefan lets Noelle bring plenty of friends to join in on the fun! Her lyrical and spirited verses are complemented by Michael Garland’s vivid illustrations. This funny and warm story brims w
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Estefan’s Second Book is Every Bit as Good as Her First Effort, With a Story That is Both Simple and Profound,
Last year’s first children’s book by Gloria Estefan, “The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog,” was both an instant bestseller and critically acclaimed. (It spent five weeks at the number two spot on the New York Times children’s picture book bestseller list, and was awarded the Latino Book Award for best picture book in English.)
This year with “Noelle’s Treasure Tale,” Estefan has done it again. The singer-turned-author’s second children’s book debuted in the third position on the New York Times children’s picture book bestseller list, and the requisite critical acclaim is sure to follow.
If interested in background information, please see my initial review of her first book.
This book is again aimed at beginning readers, aged 4 to 8 — although it is a story anyone can appreciate. It has the usual exquisite illustrations of Noelle’s adventures by illustrator Michael Garland.
All editions come with a bonus CD, in English and Spanish, of an original composition sung by Estefan: “See With Your Heart,” which nicely compliments the book. Some versions also include two tracks (in English and Spanish) of Estefan reading her book. I would recommend the version with all four tracks, because it is such a delight to listen to the audio version while reading along with the text. One can hope that a precedent has been established and that the third installment of Noelle’s adventures, promised by her publisher, Rayo, will have an original song and an English and Spanish “read aloud” by Estefan.
The nature of this story is such that to provide a synopis that does it justice is to reveal too much. It is based on historical accounts of Spanish gallons that vanished in hurricanes off what is now called the “Treasure Coast” of Florida. Estefan and family have a vacation beach house in the area, and she said in televised interviews that the stories about three to-this-day un-recovered ships that sank, full of enormous treasure, in hurricanes provided the inspiration for this book.
Bulldog Noelle and “the little girl” (no name is provided in the first two books) who owns her are the main protagonists of the story. Both head to the Treasure Coast on vacation to search for buried treasure. Suffice it to say that few adults will be surprised to discover that the true treasure in this parable is not material riches. Rather it is a celebration of life and the idea that everyone is somehow connected, and that if all creatures work together in the end everything will work out for the best: a comforting message for children and adults alike.
Estefan definitely does not write “down” to her young prospective readers. The book uses these words: gallons, doubloons, unravel, insensitive, undertow, convinced, memorize, incredible, mysterious, ravenous and intuition. Fortunately, the book is so well crafted that even a pre-schooler who is listening to his or her parents read the book will enjoy the story — and they may well be unconsciously increasing their potential verbal SAT score as well.
This is the rare sequel that is as good as the original. Publisher Rayo promises the third (and, as far as is known, final) Noelle book in time for Christmas 2007. I can hardly wait.
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|adorable book, love the lessons and the rhymes,
this is a great followup to Gloria’s first book about lovable Noelle, a bulldog who finds her way and her value in the world. This book is one of my daughters favorites and she loves the bright colorful pictures. I think we will be reading it together for many years!
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|Gloria’s Second Book is as Good or Better than the First!,
Noelle’s Treasure Tale is a wonderful little book! And the illustrations are glorious! What wonderful, bold colors – that’s the best looking crab I’ve ever seen! There’s also a CD included – See With Your Heart – a very nice song. I hope there is a third installment with another original song by Gloria. And if there is, I hope the CD will also include Gloria reading the book. That would be the icing on the cake!
Merry Christmas, Noelle!
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