Audio version critique of Chato and the Party Animals by Gary Soto

I’ve always worked with a high population of ESL and Spanish speaking students, so I am always looking for books that they can relate to and that authentically catch their culture. Chato and the Party Animals by Gary Soto is a wonderful example. Therefore, I was excited to hear it read aloud while I followed along with the book. I critiqued this book using the following criteria: Type of narration, voice quality, and pace, Sound Effects / music, Audience cues, Collateral material and technical considerations.
First, it was narrated by a single guy named Willie Colon and was fully voiced. Each character had a slightly different inflection from the others that could be distinguished. The second aspect that I looked at was the voice quality, which was very clear and pleasant to the ear. It was obvious that the narrator was a Hispanic man because you could hear his accent throughout, therefore the pronunciation of the Spanish words had the correct accent, which added to the authenticity. Colon also used variations in pitch and volume at appropriate times that went along well with the story. Next I looked at the sound effects and music. The story opened up with intro music, throughout you could hear incidental music as well as the sound of phones ringing, characters snoring, things squeaking, etc. It also offered a page turn indicator, which sounded like the pages of a book turning. Then I looked at the audience cues and collateral material together. The narrator only read the Title of the book, the name of the author and illustrator. He didn’t read the title page verso or the glossary of terms at the beginning of the story, which define the meanings of the Spanish words that are peppered throughout. He did however offer a tag line at the beginning, explaining how you would know when to turn the page. The last thing that I looked at was the technical consideration. The sound quality was very clear and precise, especially given that the medium was a CD that I borrowed from the public library. My only complaint was that there was too much time between the narration and the turning of the page indicator. As far as the packaging goes, the CD came in a plain, sturdy, plastic case. It was also nice not to have to adjust the sound level because it was very consistent throughout the entire reading.
Overall, I would recommend this audio version of the book to anyone who has a problem with Spanish accents or who wants to take a break from reading aloud. This just like many audio picture books would also be good for struggling readers.