Pata Sucia is a fly with an identity crisis. She tries to make herself useful. But she feels like a nuisance. The bad reputation of her kind follows her around. Nobody welcomes her. Nobody wants her help. People say she is an annoying, dirty fly. No wonder Pata Sucia is unhappy with herself. Pata Sucia is a fly with a sweet tooth who wants to be useful and lovable. She doesn’t want to be a dirty fly! Yuck!
One day she meets the bees and sees how useful and loved they are. Everyone loves honey, and bees make honey. Pata Sucia now dreams of flying from flower-to-flower, eating sweet honey. She decides: “I will become a bee!”. But the world around her doesn’t always affirm her truth. Can Pata Sucia reinvent herself when she is stuck in the body of a fly?

Mosca en leche is a title that plays on the meaning of the expression Mosca en leche. Many Latin Americans say ‘Me siento como mosca en leche’—‘I feel like a fly in milk’—when we feel like we don’t fit in a context, when we feel out of place among others.

Specifications

• 91 unique words plus many cognates
• 69 pages of text
• new words are translated in the margins
• 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 en leche is a heartwarming animal fiction story for young and beginning readers that touches on the theme of identity construction, identity crisis and animal transition. 

Mosca en leche is illustrated by Avoltha, a group of Mexican professional graphic artists. There are 22 full-page illustrations of Pata Sucia as she makes her way from the city to the countryside and all the people and animals she encounters on her way: the baker at the bakery, the dog-owner, the wasps, the cows, the toad, the bees and the queen bee with a present that will change Pata Sucia’s like forever. They are delightful!

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 recognise 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.