Spicy Hot Colors: Colores Picantes

It comes across as somebody writing Spanish who doesn't actually speak Spanish or know about Mexican or Latin American culture. It's a very white person perspective. The author lives in central California. The last sentence in the book: "The spicy hot colors sizzle/on a Saturday night./be-bop-bolero/bim-bam-la-bomba/La Cucaracha!/¡OLÉ!" What? "La bomba" actually means BOMB if spelled that way. "La Bamba" is, of course, one of the few Mexican songs that Americans know, and "La Cucaracha", which is another song that Americans know. And her throwing in "jazz" words like "razzmatazz" is weird and out of place. Some of the things she chooses to depict for the colors are bizarre, like purple is "piñata" and "candy". And I've got no idea why she thought that Mexico was known for its paper dragons. I'm not saying there aren't any, but paper dragons sure make me think of China a lot more than Mexico. I don't know whether people from that culture would think it was sweet, in kind of a quaint way, that they were thought of by only these things, or would be offended. I am not Hispanic, but living in southern California my whole life, I've been exposed to it somewhat, and there's a lot more to it than these trivial things. It just seems like the author is co-opting the culture and pandering to the multicultural angle that is popular in children's books. It just doesn't work for me. It's not a bad book, but it's pretty mediocre.