CUSTAR – A Perrysburg author visited St. Louis School during Right to Read week last month, reading from
her book about a cranky cat.
Sandy Grolle read from "Cranky Frankie: A Springtime Latino Tradition," to preschool, grades
kindergarten through second and grades three and four.
The story is about a girl named Leah and her cat Frankie, who she liked to call Cranky Frankie, because
he was always a grumpy cat. He liked to sleep and wanted to be left alone.
Leah shares the story about an Latino tradition of cascarones. Legend has it, that Italian gentlemen
would fill empty eggshells with perfume and toss them to ladies as a sign of affection. In Mexico, this
is a behavior that is still done between young boys and girls.
In the springtime, around Easter, eggs are filled with confetti and kids will gently break the eggs on
the heads of their friends and make a wish. If the eggshell breaks, with the confetti showering their
heads, it is said that their wish will come true.
"Cranky Frankie" continues with the description/directions of how to make cascarones. At the
end of the story, Leah uses her cascarones on Frankie. The confetti fell onto his fur. Frankie’s wish
was for Leah to go outside and leave him alone – and Frankie was not cranky any more.
All of the St. Louis classes got to make their own cascarones but instead of using confetti, they used
bird seed. They cracked them outside and the birds got to enjoy a treat too.
The kids were able to purchase a copy of her book and she wrote a message and autographed each book.