Big Bushy Mustache
By Gary Soto
1998
First Published
3.81
Average Rating
32
Number of Pages
It's almost Cinco de Mayo, and Ricky's class is going to put on a play to celebrate the festive Mexican holiday. When asked to choose his costume, Ricky picks a big, bushy mustache, just like his dad's. He's tired of everyone telling him he looks like his mother. After all, he's a boy—he wants to look like his Papi. Although he's supposed to leave it in school, Ricky wears the mustache home, reveling all the way in how grown-up it makes him feel. But by the time he gets there, the mustache is gone, and Ricky dreads having to tell his teacher what happened. Lucky for him, his Mama and Papi have a plan. Ricky is delighted the next morning when his Mama hands him a new big, bushy mustache—fresh from the smiling face of his clean-shaven Papi! With humor and tenderness, Soto evokes a warm celebration of both the beloved tradition of Cinco de Mayo and the strong bonds of love between father and son.
Avg Rating
3.81
Number of Ratings
81
5 STARS
26%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
23%
2 STARS
9%
1 STARS
1%
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Author
Gary Soto
Author · 55 books
Gary Soto is the author of eleven poetry collections for adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Film Excellence. In 1997, because of his advocacy for reading, he was featured as NBC’s Person-of-the-Week. In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes. He divides his time between Berkeley, California and his hometown of Fresno.
