In the book I have made tributes to stuff that children and not so children like, I list some of them
1) Tributes to toys
Lego constructions
- Guille, one of the characters in the book, says that when he grows up he would like to be a designer for Legos
- In a couple of chapters of the book I use Lego constructions as an educational resource
- In the chapter entitled «Fix-it Nico«, Nico uses Guille’s interest in Lego constructions as a motivation for his friend to get a school science project done using Lego bricks.
- In the chapter entitled «Ninjas always have good luck«, Nico uses the values of the Lego Ninjago characters to change the attitude of his cousin César who is frustrated because everything always goes wrong for him because he thinks he has bad luck.
Playmobil Clicks
In the chapter entitled «The Case of the Missing Astronaut«, the protagonist is an Astronaut Click that Nico has to find.
2) Tributes to books or stories
In the chapter entitled «The Treasure of the Pirate Malsobaco» the teacher Maria reads to the children in her class several fragments of the book «Treasure Island«.
In the chapter entitled «On the hunt for the pooping tiger» I include a drawing of a snake that has swallowed a tiger similar to the image in the book «The Little Prince» where a snake has swallowed an elephant, or is this drawing a hat?
In the chapter entitled «This is not my mother, someone has changed her» I include a drawing of «the swapping machine» from Mortadelo and Filemón stories that so many times have made us laugh until we could not laugh anymore. This tribute is for you Mr. Francisco Ibáñez.
3) Tributes to video games
The video game that Nico likes the most is «Angry Birds«, or as he likes to say «Angry Chickens».
The chapter entitled «Fix-it Nico» is named after the video game «Fix it-Félix Jr.» that appears in the movie Wreck it Ralph. This is a tribute to the arcade video games of our youth.
4) Tribute to the practice of sport and health care
This section is more for parents than for children, but I also found it interesting to include, since health care is important for all ages.
In the chapter entitled «This is not my mother, someone has changed her» I make a tribute to a super-healthy sport to which I am hooked that is called «Nordic Walking» and, along with swimming, is one of the two basic sports that I practice for my health care.
If you want to know the benefits of Nordic Walking read the following article I have written about this sport: Nordic Walking improved my life, it can improve yours too.
If you want to know how to use this sport, combined with a healthy diet, for the care of your health, I leave you a link to download for free a book I wrote about the issue (available only in spanish) «Mens sana in corpore sano. Una guía para el cuidado de tu salud».
5) Tribute to cities
Paracuellos de Jarama
Most of Nico’s adventures take place in Paracuellos de Jarama, which is the town where our protagonist and his friends live.
If you want to know more about this municipality you can access the blog of the official chroniclers of Paracuellos de Jarama: Javier Nájera and Luis Yuste who are doing such a great job to document the history and stories of the town.
https://historiasdeparacuellos.blogspot.com
Segovia
The chapter entitled «Ninjas always have good luck» takes place in the city of Segovia, which is the city where Nico’s parents were born and which for him «is the most beautiful city in the world».
If you want to know the city, a good reference is the Segovia tourism website: http://www.turismodesegovia.com
And as an snack of an overview of the things you can see in Segovia, I attach one of the videos available on this website: https://youtu.be/ihF4SYKHzQw
Nico, the little detective 