AUTHOR’S NOTE For review purposes only. Not for distribution.
While growing up in Colombia, my friends and I loved to sing “ Juguemos en el Bosque (Let’s Play in the Forest),” a popular play song. We would hold hands in a circle and chant while the wolf, off in the distance, got dressed. Once he or she finished dressing, the wolf would run after all the other children. The first to get caught became the new wolf. Many years later, while living in San Francisco, I played the game with my little girls whenever they were reluctant to get dressed. It worked quite well, since they loved being the wolf. My fondness for this song and game led me to research its origins, and ultimately, to turn it into this book. With the help of Joëlle Turin, a children’s literature research specialist in France, I discovered that the game (known as “ Promenons-nous dans les bois ”) dates back before the sixteenth century. It is thought to have originated in the town of Jumièges in the North of France, among the monks of the brotherhood of Saint Jean. They would elect the new head of their abbey in a ceremony in which the old head — called wolf — put on a costume and ran after the other monks to catch his successor. I hope you will enjoy “Let’s Play in the Forest” along with the children in France and Latin America who have delighted in it for centuries.
* Wolf speaks: I am putting on my underpants . . . I am putting on my undershirt . . . I am putting on my pants . . .
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