Watch Out for Clever Women / Cuidado con las mujeres astutas

Review
By Wall Street Journal

[The book] brings together 10 stories of wit, daring and just deserts by Joe Hayes. Each starts with a realistic pencil drawing by Vicki Trego Hill and a paragraph in both English and Spanish, then breaks for easier reading into English text on the left pages and Spanish on the right.

A second collection of trickster tales incorporating some previously published material draws from the storytelling traditions of the American Southwest. “Watch Out for Clever Women! / ¡Cuidado con las Mujeres Astutas!” (Cinco Puntos Press, 127 pages, $12.95) brings together 10 stories of wit, daring and just deserts by Joe Hayes. Each starts with a realistic pencil drawing by Vicki Trego Hill and a paragraph in both English and Spanish, then breaks for easier reading into English text on the left pages and Spanish on the right.

A tale titled “The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El día que nevaron tortillas” captures the book’s wry spirit. In the story, a clever wife manages to compensate for her husband’s failings. He’s a good fellow but dull-witted and unable to keep a secret, so when he accidentally brings home three bags of gold that robbers have hidden in the mountains, his wife has to get busy. “Get me a hundred pounds of flour,” she tells him, aiming to tire him out so he’ll have a long snooze while she creates the impression that tortillas have been falling from the sky. A week later, when the thieves come looking for their loot, the guileless husband explains that he found their gold “the day before it snowed tortillas.” The robbers shake their heads: “This poor man is out of his head!” and off they go, none the wiser, leaving the husband and wife with the bags of gold.
– Meghan Cox Gurdon