Growing Up on the Playground Nuestro patio de recreo was reviewed by the Spanish teacher at my high school. She notes that the title of this book is an example of how sentences do not need to be translated directly, word for word. In Spanish the title says, “Our playground” yet its meanings are still very similar to that of the English title. The kids in the story start out playing in a certain part of the playground and with every progressive grade they do something different until their last year of elementary school when they have to leave to allow other children to experience and grow up there, too. It is “our playground” because they grew up on it as school children. The main character, Ana, takes it a step further by becoming a teacher at that school when she returns an adult. As a teacher, she brings it full circle by introducing new kids each year to the playground, where on it, too they will grow up and make their own. It is a lovely story, written in both English and Spanish. She recommends it.