A Song of Frutas

Discussion questions

• The author Margarita Engle describes words as bridges a few times in the story. When does she do this? How do you think words are like bridges?

• The girl in the story visits her abuelo in Cuba. What is special about her visits? What can we learn about Cuba from this story?

• We saw lots of different types of street vendors in this story. If you were a street vendor, what would you sell?

• The little girl’s favorite time to visit her grandfather is at New Year’s, when they have a tradition of eating 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. What New Year’s traditions do you have?

• How do the little girl and her abuelo stay connected when they aren’t together? Do you ever send letters to anyone? 

Vocabulary

• Use the worksheet in the publisher’s activity sheets to practice the Spanish names for fruits.

Video content

• News story in Spanish about the revival of the tradition of street vendors, which includes several different songs sung by street vendors: https://video.link/w/GQvzd

• Read aloud (4:27):  https://video.link/w/PQvzd

• In the author’s note, Margarita Engle references the song “El Manisero”: El Manisero (ThePeanut Vendor)-Havana Casino Orch-1930 

Publisher content 

• Excellent teachers’ guide from Simon & Schuster: https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/tagged_assets/7006764/9781534444898_cg_a%20song%20of%20frutas%20curriculum%20guide.pdf 

• Activity sheets from the publisher: https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/tagged_assets/6679261/9781534444898_as_songoffrutas.pdf 

Activities

• At the end of the book, the little girl and her abuelo stay connected by exchanging letters when they are far apart. Choose someone important to you that you don’t see often and write a short letter to them. What do you want to share with them about your life? You could even write about this book we just read!

• Use library resources or nonfiction books on a source like Epic! to learn more about Cuba. 

• Abuelo’s job in this story is being a frutero—selling fruit to people in the streets. Set up a fruit shop and practice selling and buying, including paying the correct amount and making change.

Companion books