10. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

2022 Newbery Award Winner

listened on Audible (used a credit for it)

2021

336 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 1/30/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4ish
Setting: 2060 New Mexico and 2400 Planet in another galaxy

My comments: This book was awarded the Newbery Medal last Monday, which sent me in a tailspin to obtain an audio reading asap.  It was read beautifully.  The cover is gorgeous. And it was an absolutely interesting piece of storytelling.  I'm not a big fan of folk/mythology/storytelling, and there were lots of places in the book where very important stories were told, stories that needed to be listened to in order to understand messages from Petra's grandmother, and then from herself.  I had to force myself to pay attention to these parts.  There seemed to me lots of repetitive places, and sometimes the story seemed to drag a bit. Creepy in places, sad in places, clever and adventurous in others.  Some of the pondering seemed more adult than child-centered. Lots to think about.  Good story, but I wouldn't have chosen it for a Newbery....but I never really like/agree with the Newbery choices, so ....

Goodreads synopsis:  There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

68. Sofia Martinez: Abuela's Birthday by Jacqueline Jules

Illustrated by Kim Smith
Read the book - Bosler Library
2015, Picture Window Books
32 pgs. (3 chapters)
Finished 12/8/17
Goodreads rating:  3.48 - 25 ratings
My rating:  4
Guided Reading Level K

First line/s:  "Sofia carried a big bag across the yard to her cousins' house.  The bag held everything they needed to make a pinata."

My comments: Super easy first chapter book with Spanish words to learn in context, includes glossary and a couple of questions to ask the kids who read/listened to answer aloud or in writing.  Very cute, easy story.

Goodreads synopsis: Sofia wants to make her grandma's birthday extra special. With the help of her cousins, she has the perfect plan. But an uninvited helper might ruin the entire surprise.

46. Meet Josefina by Valerie Tripp

First book in the series
1997, Pleasant Company Publications
85 pgs.
Erly Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Finished 8-10-17
Goodreads rating:  3.85 - 3491 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: 1820's Santa Fe, NM

First line/s: "Josefina Montoya hummed to herself as she stood in the sunshine waiting for her sisters."

My comments: A good, wholesome, story with a seemingly well-researched setting just outside Santa Fe New Mexico in the 1820s.  This is the first in this American Girl series about a New Mexican, Spanish-speaking nine-year-old, the youngest of four girls being raised by their widowed father.

Goodreads synopsis: Josefina Montoya is growing up on a rancho near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1824. Ever since Mama died a year before, Josefina and her three sisters have been struggling to carry on without her. One bright fall day, happy news arrives--their beloved grandfather is returning home after a long trading trip. Josefina knows that he will bring exciting stories and wonderful treasures from his journey. But this time he brings something more--a great surprise that Josefina and her sisters never even dreamed of!" 

PICTURE BOOK - Maya's Blanket / La Manta de Maya by Monica Brown

Illustrated by David Diaz

2015 Children's Book Press (Lee & Low Books\
$17.95 HC
24 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.1 - 124 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers:  Dark aqua fabric with "stitched" purple butterflies

Illustrations:  Bright and dark, completely filling the page with no white!  Heaven!

1^st line/s: "Little Maya Morales had a special manta that she loved very much."

My comments:  Another extra-special picture book to love.  And when it starts out with a quilt (or a blanket or manta in this case) made by a child's loving grandmother (abuelita), is bilingual, and is also illustrated by the incredible David Diaz....well, need I say more?  The rich illustrations that spread completely across the page from edge to edge in deep purples, greens, aquas, are wonderful.  The story, based on the Jewish folktale about Joseph and his overcoat, if great fun with repetition that isn't boring.  And in these days of recycling, re-purposing, and DIY, this "hidden" theme takes on new importance. Two thumbs up!

Goodreads:  Little Maya has a special blanket that Grandma stitched with her own two hands. As Maya grows, her blanket becomes worn and frayed, so with Grandma s help, Maya makes it into a dress. Over time the dress is made into a skirt, a shawl, a scarf, a hair ribbon, and finally, a bookmark. Each item has special, magical, meaning for Maya; it animates her adventures, protects her, or helps her in some way. But when Maya loses her bookmark, she preserves her memories by creating a book about her adventures and love of these items. When Maya grows up, she shares her book Maya s Blanket/La manta de Maya with her own little daughter while snuggled under her own special blanket. Inspired by the traditional Yiddish folk song Hob Ikh Mir a Mantl ( I Had a Little Coat ), this delightful bilingual picture book puts a child-focused, Latino spin on the tale of an item that is made into smaller and smaller items. Maya s Blanket/La manta de Maya charmingly brings to life this celebration creativity, recycling, and enduring family love."

Let's Go See Papa! - Lawrence Schimel

Illustrated by Alba Marina Rivera
Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2009
$18.95
40 pages
Rating:  Liked it a lot
Endpapers: Light Blue
Title page:  Beige with illustration of the house where the little girl lives
Illustrations:  Full page on beige, some go over onto the facing page.  I like the illustrations a lot, looking closely I think they're done with colored pencils.
1st line/s:  "On Sundays I wake up early even though I don't have to go to school./Papa's going to call us.  He phones every Sunday because it's cheaper.  Sunday is my favorite day.
Setting:  A Spanish-speaking country, contemporary.
OSS:  A little girl misses her father who has been working for over a year in the United States while she and her mom live with her abuela and wait for him to come home or send for them.

This is a lovely story, of family, of missing a parent, or how life goes on while waiting for change to come when you know it's coming.  The little girl in the story, who lives in an unnamed country, waits for Sunday to talk briefly with her papa on the phone. She keeps a journal for him, telling him what's happening in their life each day while he's gone. He's in America, and this Sunday, after almost two years, he's telling her she and her mom are going to fly there to live with him.  She has, of course, mixed feelings...she'll be leaving her best friend, her grandmother, and her dog, but she misses her father so badly that she's still happy to go.  The book ends as the mother and daughter are flying away on an airplane over the ocean.

I liked thinking about the immigrants that I see here in Tucson and the family they may have left behind, missing them, working hard to make life easier for them, how often do I think about that?  All most parents want for their kids is a good life!

What Can You Do with a Rebozo? Carmen Tafolla

Illustrated by Amy Cordova
Tricycle Press, 2008
$14.95
28 pgs.
For: kids
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Edges of a red rebozo scarf (and two colorful butterflies!)

If you don't know what a rebozo is, you will by the end of the book. And now I want one! I saw someone wearing a pretty white sleeveless dress with a deep lime/avacado rebozo draped across her shoulders, and she looked stunning. I bet it'd look good on anyone of any shape and size. And we watch as a family uses the mom's rebozo in many ways - carrying a baby, playing hide and seek, wrapping in lovely long hair, for warmth as a shawl, covering your eyes when playing pinata, as a superhero cape, and eve to clean up spills when nothing else is handy.

The illustrations include all sorts of colorful Hispanic/Mexican/American art and traditions and cover the entire page with bright beautiful color. I really enjoy this artist! (Amy Cordova owns a gallery in northern New Mexico (Taos, I think). Road Trip!

Gathering the Sun - Alma Flor Ada

Poetry
An Alphabet in Spanish and English
English translation by Rosa Zubizarreta
Illustrated by Simon Silva
Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1997
(4.1/590L/K-2)
40 pgs.
Endpapers: Bright Orange

26 "small" poems describing the life of a Mexican farm worker. The illustrations are just fabulous - edge to edge - with the word in bordered boxes. The book flap calls them "sun drenched". They are! The dark cover doesn't suit OR give enough credit to the illustrations inside. Spanish first, then English.

Orgullo = Pride
Proud of my family
proud of my language
. . . . culture
. . . . people
. . .being who I am

Tomates = Tomatoes
Fresh tomato
in a salad,
in the salsa,
in enchiladas
Red tomato
in the kitchen,
in the little tacos
my godmother loves to make.

A Gift for Abuelita - Nancy Luenn

Celebrating the Day of the Dead
(Un regalo para Abuelita En celebracion del Dia de los Muertos)
Illustrated by Robert Chapman
Rising Moon, 1998
32 Pages
Rating: 4/5 Illustrations
Endpapers: The cemetery, close up

Oh, the illustrations in this book! So different! I tried to guess how they were made before finding out. Thoughtfully - and thankfully - Mr. Chapman gave an excellent description of his process: CAST PAPER. He creates a mold using a wooden frame where he forms the picture in many layers using wood, cardboards, and heavy papers. He then creates the page by applying a thin layer of wet paper pulp. When dry and uncast, he paints and adds thread, twine, beads, etc. I would LOVE to see (and touch...) the actual work!

The story, told in English and Spanish, is the personal story of a young girl whose beloved abuelita (grandmother) has recently died. We hear of the offerings (ofrenda) that her family is making for previously deceased loved ones for the Day of the Dead. We're with them when they clean the graves and picnic at the cemetery. And we share Rosita's joy when she finally feels her abuelita's presence.

57. Confetti Girl - Diana Lopez

for: Middle Grades
Little Brown, June 2009
200 pgs.
Rating: 4

Lina Flores is tall, skinny, and motherless. She has a huge sock collection, a best friend that she shares everything with, and a dad who's still grieving his wife's death and seems more interested in his books that he is in Lina. Her reaction is to blow off English (her dad's an English teacher), and she begins to fail. A sixth grader, she also acquires her first boyfriend.

She's lucky that her best friend, Vanessa, lives across the street. Vanessa's mother has been a man-hater since her divorce, and spends every free moment she has making cascarones from eggs, filling them with confetti and accumulating them. It's a good story about friendship, and the loss of a parent. Also included are lots of dichos: Los amigos mejores son libros - Books are your best friends, En boca cerrada no entran moscas - Flies can't enter a closed mouth....etc.

It started out great, petered out a little toward the end. Nevertheless, a good story that many girls will adore.

Mexico & Central America - Mary C. Turck

A Fiesta of Cultures, Crafts, and Activities for Ages 8-12
Chicago Review Press
$14.95
148 p.
Published 2004
A must have if teaching Mexico or Central America - you could base your entire unit on this book

40+ Projects
3 Short dramatic plays
Maps and loads of information about past and present, culture, history, politics
Don't be decieved by the format, this looks like a craft and activity book. Yes, it's full of both, but it's also chock full of information and history written in a clear, informative, INTERESTING way!

Chapter titles:
1. Ancient Roots (particularly Maya and Aztec)
2. Country by Country (informative map and information about each):
....Mexico
....Belize
....Costa Rica
....El Salvador
....Guatamela
....Honduras
....Nicaragua
....Panama
3. Life Above the Clouds (Contemporary lifestyle)
4. On the Atlantic Coast (African and Indian influences)
5. Going to school (looks at schools in Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala)
6. Art and Poetry
7. Daily Grind: Corn and Coffee (Food, Agriculture)
8. Celebrating Life (family celebrations)
9. Religious and Patriotic Holidays

SPANISH lessons and vocabulary throughout (at least once per chapter)
Much information about Hurrican Mitch (Oct. 1998)
Quincenareas
Border crossings and immigration
Large resource list

Some activites I plan to do in the first month of school:
Creating an Aztec calendar
Creating a hieroglyphic name for yourself
Map-making
Soap carving
Music makers: Drums/maracas/guiros/claves
Making a mola
Yarn Painting
Murals - and Diego Rivera
Poetry writing
Tree of Life (I've seen some beautiful ones, this gives ideas for making one...)
Papel picado (cutting paper)
Making a pinata
Luminarias !Ojo de Dios (God's eyes)

El Barrio - Debbi Chocolate

Illustrator: David Diaz
2009
Rating: 4.5
$16.95
Endpapers: Bright Yellow

Another book of CELEBRATION! Celebration of a culture and of home. Celebrations of Hispanic roots, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Aztec, Maya...... Barrio means neighborhood. This is the story of a glorious Hispanic neighborhood. It could be in Chicago, or New York City, or even Tucson.

"El barrio is where Nativity parades, Cinco de Mayo,, and Day of the Dead explode into big holidays. Feli Navidad!
El barrio is a quinceanera party (my sister turns fifteen today!) and a swollen birthday pinata bursting with candy treasure."

The illustrations are bright and wihout any white. The borders look like photos of beading, mosaics, leaves, textiles. The double-page spreads look like acrylic on wood cuts, but it's really hard for me to tell. They're big and bold and bright - greens and aquas and purples and reds. Lady of Guadalupe candles, salsa music, neon city streets.....LOVE IT!

Book Fiesta - Pat Mora

Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day
Celebremos El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros
Illustrated by Rafael Lopez
2009
Rating: 5 for the Illustrations alone!
$17.99
Endpapers: Wow. Front: Sleeping on a Cloud, Waking on a moon, sun is rising....COLOR!
Back: Closer-up, moon smiling down at boy reading on cloud, nighttime's coming....

This book celebrates reading. It celebrates books. It celebrates story. And it celebrates family. It covers the world. It shows the southwest strongly (love it!). It rhymes. It's written in English and in Spanish. It's colorful.

"We read libros together in cars/ and planes/ and trains. We read to our puppies and kittens, and to lizards in our yard./We read riding an elephant/or sailing with a whale./ We read in a long submarine/ or floating in a hot-air balloon./ Then, snug in our beds, we read to the moon/ and fly away in our books. Toon! Toon!"

I want to have a Book Fiesta in my classroom....in my school.....NEXT YEAR! At the back of the book Pat Mora give information and many suggestions to celebrate and annual "Dia" Children & Books Day. Take her up on it!

Just in Case - Yuyi Morales

A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book
2008
Rating: 4
$17.95
Endpapers: Turquoise with 9 white-rimmed alphabet cards.

What a great name - Yuyi. I wonder how you pronounce it.

Senor Calavera gets ready to go to Grandma Beetle's birthday party, then hops on his bike to get him there. On the way he meets up with Zelmiro the ghost, who reminds him that he has no gift. So he begins to accumulate gifts - alphabetically. Gifts in Spanish, great spanish words. "Dientes. Teeth for a good bite. Una Escalera. A ladder to reach p st the sky. Una Flauta. A flute he made from a branch. Granizado. A snow cone flavored with syrup." Page by page he picks up more gifts - gorgeously illustrated and colorful pages - until he gets to Grandmap Beetle's party. And we find out the Zelmire the ghost is none other than (da da!) Grandpa Zelmiro! The date on the wall is 7 Novembre. A beautifully illustrated Day of the Dead tie-in - and an alphabet book to boot!

Napi Goes to the Mountain - Antonio Ramirez

Illustrator: Domi (wife of the author)
Translator: Elisa Amado
Rating: 4
Published 2006
Endpapers: Brown and white scene of nesting storks

The illustrations are water colors - browns with tie-dye-like slashes of color on main characters and the object being highlighted in the text. Faces are Picasso-y in a way. Very interesting!

The story is a dream-like quest story, deeply involving nature. When the father of a young Mazateca girl named Napi doesn't come home one day, she and her brother decide to find him. On their quest they become deer and can talk to other animals. It's not as hokey as it sounds - it's really quet a nice tor. It ends:

My mother walked over as soon as she saw us.
"Napi, did you go to school today?" she asked.
"No, Naa," I answered truthfully
Because even though, I never tell lies.

A great story to discuss!

Calavera Abecedario - Jeanette Winter

A Day of the Dead Alphabet Book
For: The multitudes that know little about El di de los muertos
Published: 2004
Rating: 4.5
Read: Every October since 2004
Endpapers: B & W calaveras holding candles
A festive celebration!

I've chosen just one of my Day of the Dead books to mention this morning. I have a couple by Jeanette Winter-her art, her illustrations, the way she depicts this happy Mexican celebration, evoke really good feelings for me. Lots of blacks and fiesta colors. Black-backed illustrations framed to the edge of the page with yellows, pinks, purples, aquas, greens.....

The first nine pages tell of a family in Mexico City that have made calaveras (paper mache skeletons) for generations. Then the alphabet begins. Angels, witches, doctors, farmers, musicians, bride and groom, shoemaker, unicorn, chemist, queen.... all are depicted as calaveras using the SPANISH name. The translation for each is in the back as well as a bit of information about the day

Hanukkah Moon - Deborah da Costa

Illustrator: Gosia Mosz
For: Kids
Pub: 2007
Rating: 3/5
Read: Sept. 11, 2001

Isobel is visiting her Aunt Luisa, recently arrived from Mexico, for a couple of days of Hanukkah. Aunt Luisa is a university photography teacher and lover of wildlife. She gives Isobel her own camera and introduces her to the birds and animals in her backyard at night. She also teachers her about "Rosh Hodesh", the luna nueva, the new moon, when the bright side of the moon is facing AWAY from the earth. This she calls the "Hanukkah Moon." In the extreme darkness the animals feel safe and come out to enjoy the feast of nuts and berries that Aunt Luisa and Isobel have left them.

Apparently this celebration of the Hanukkah moon comes from the Sephardic Jews (originally from Spain) who settled in Latin America. Particularly important is for kids to see that there are Hispanic/Latino Jews....that, indeed, Jews live in every country and are from many, many backgrounds. This book really showed me that now matter how much I try not to stereotype, I still do. It was so cool to see Hispanic Jews celebrating Hanukkah - Jewish, not Roman Catholic.

The illustrations are not in what I consider the "traditional" Hanukkah colors of blues and silvers, nor of the "traditional" primary colors of Latin America. They are in gorgeous purples, oranges, and yellow-orange.. Different and unusual, this was a fun book to read. A glossary in the back and an author's note in the front are helpful and informative.