Mosca is a common fly with an uncommon problem: she is a one-eyed fly. Mosca is a fly that can’t even fly straight! Mosca lives amid the garbage and collects trash for a living. But Mosca has a dream: she wants to be a great circus performer. ‘Pathetic loser!’ all the other insects say. Poor Mosca! But dreams are treasures… And sometimes we can find treasures in trash.

Mosca, ¡¡Mosca!! is a title that plays on the meaning of the word Mosca. ¿Mosca? Mosca means ‘fly’ in Spanish. But when a Venezuelan says: ¡¡Mosca!!, it simply means ‘Look out!’, ‘Be careful!’ Something bad may happen. So: Mosca, ¡¡Mosca!! means ‘Fly, look out!’ Yes, in this adorable and beautifully illustrated story, our fly is in trouble!

Features

• 225 unique words plus many cognates
• 78 pages of text
• written in present tense (and past tense where needed)
• Neutral Spanish with several Latin-American characteristics: more use of personal pronouns than in Spain, and the use of 'ustedes' instead of 'vosotros'.
• setting: Venezuela

For teachers

Mosca, ¡¡Mosca!! is a lighthearted animal fiction story that pays homage to all the waste pickers of La Bonanza who live in the trash in a dangerous place dominated by the vultures, searching for treasures to recycle and sell, to survive another day, to take care of their families. They too, like Mosca, have dreams.

The story is set in La Bonanza, the biggest open-air landfill in Venezuela, where Mosca and thousands of animals of all kinds live. Not only do ants, rats, flies and vultures live in La Bonanza; people live off the trash as well. And in a country facing a serious economic crisis, many people spend their day laboring in the landfill. Despite the bad smell, these waste pickers look for trash to sell for money. But where there is money to be gained, there are other people waiting to take advantage. La Bonanza is also the home of the powerful mega-gang El Buitre, ‘the vulture’, whose members also live off selling trash for cash. The gang members prey on other waste pickers, forcing them to work for their criminal organization. Those who won’t cooperate are kicked out of the dump or worse.

The book comes with an introduction to the cultural backdrop of the story, a list of words required to read the story and a list of cognates or transparent words that are easy to recognize in English.

Classroom set 

Would you like to order a class set? We will give you a 10% discount on 25 or more copies of the same title. Please, order the novels via e-mail. Due to relatively small stock numbers, please allow 2-3 weeks for your order.

Note: All the materials are copyright protected, which means that it is not permitted to make copies for use in the classroom.