Tag team

K-Gr 2--Following their debut in Training Day, wrestling partners El Toro and La Oink Oink are back, and cleaning up has never been so much fun. They won their match the previous evening against Donny Dollars and Bald Aguila at El Coliseo and today, El Toro arrives at the arena to put it in order. When he finds the place in complete disarray, he calls on his tag team friend to help him out. Together they clean up the many messes in record time and have fun along the way. There are two reasons for this: one is sharing the duties and the other is playing music. "Mi mama would always listen to music when she cleaned," says El Toro. Just as they do in the wrestling ring, the duo works together to defeat the disorder. A great new entry in "El Toro and Friends," which pays tribute to Mexican Americans and includes Spanish words along with their translation in an easy reading format. VERDICT The colorful, action-packed cartoon illustrations create a comic book geared toward a young audience who will get a kick out of following the two teammates and their cooperative efforts both inside and outside the wrestling ring.--Maryann H. Owen, Oak Creek P.L., WI

This easy-reader spinoff series dives into lucha libre action with the fantastical cast from the author's !Vamos! picture books (beginning with !Vamos!: Let's Go to the Market, rev. 3/20). In Training Day, Kooky Dooky, the ever-peppy and loony rooster, is determined to prepare El Toro for his big match against The Wall (who is undefeated), but El Toro wants to linger in bed and snooze. Eventually Kooky lures El Toro out of bed and all around town, where he chases chickens, smashes pinatas, and "helps las abuelitas cross the street," sharpening his senses, speed, and patience while basking in the motivational cheers from the town's surreal-looking creatures. Tag Team finds El Toro and his tag-team partner, La Oink Oink, the morning after their exhilarating win against the evil duo Donny Dollars and Bald Aguila, unable to savor triumph's afterglow because El Coliseo is a spectacular mess. With boom box amped, El Toro and La Oink Oink bust out their lucha moves, battling sticky floors and clogged toilets and getting the job done. Simple sentences and recognizable -- yet entirely fresh and original -- plot structures set up young readers for accomplishment. Visual and linguistic whirls and twirls match the fast-paced tempo of lucha libre, serving up dazzling Chicano English and details such as El Toro's "telefono watch-o," the "Punk Nopal" graffiti tag on a bathroom wall, and the revving lowrider onomatopoeia "RRREEOW!" of La Oink Oink's tricked-out ranfla. This pizzazz echoes throughout the chillante palette of matte violet, teal, and orange hues, animating the dynamic motion lines in comic-book-style drawings, rewarding attentive eyes and ears with endless detail and inside jokes. [Review covers these El Toro & Friends titles: Tag Team and Training Day.] (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.