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Freddie Ramos Stomps the Snow

This is Book 5 in the Zapato Power series. Freddie isn’t sure if his super-powered sneakers will work in the snow of the March blizzard, but he soon finds out they do. Super fast Zapato (shoe- in Spanish) power clears a path in the snow to all the apartments in his complex. Then Freddie cheerfully helps Mr. Vaslov, the apartment manager, by clearing a path in the snow to the school where the people of Building D have been evacuated to the gym because the furnace in Building D isn’t working.  Then, someone has robbed mean Erika’s abuela’s purse while they are temporarily camped out in the school gym. After the police come to investigate the missing purse, Freddie uses his ‘super sneakers’ to snoop (by bouncing high enough to look in through the windows) in 3 suspect houses near the school of the stolen purse. Then Freddie and his friend Maria set a trap for the purse thief using Maria’s giant pink purse. Maria’s pink purse is also stolen from the gym, but not before guacamole has been accidentally spilled onto it. Freddie is able to track the thief by following the green globs of guacamole in the snow. When Freddie catches up to him Freddie runs circles around him. “Just like a snowplow, I pushed enough snow to lock him into a snow jail.” (p. 80)  The police come to arrest the thief. The following morning when the children go sledding, Erika is kinder to Freddie and his friends because “” ‘ I owe you one’  she said…” for helping her abuela.

 

Miguel Benitez’s numerous black and white full-page, half-page, and quarter-page  illustrations help carry the text as it flows smoothly forward carrying the reader along with it.