Mexico is currently in the midst of its Día de los Muertos celebrations and there are some wonderful pictures appearing on various blogs, which highlight the color and exuberance of the festival – such as this at Zocalo de Mexican Folk Art; while Sue at Cottage in the Cedars recalls a past visit to Mexico and gives lots of background information. There are some great children’s books around – I blogged about some last year (including author René Colato Laínez’ as yet unpublished Magic Night, Noche Mágica). My Readable Feast has a new post about the Global Wonders dvd, with an extract to view about The Day of the Dead –it’s also worth scrolling down through the tag to her previous posts too, both for suggestions for children’s books and to see some very impressive home-made sugar skulls…

A new book, Abuelos, by Pat Mora and illustrated by Amelia Lau Carling (Groundwood, 2008), explores a less well-known tradition which carries traits of both Spanish and Pueblo cultures, and which (more…)

Fiesta Femenina: Celebrating Women in Mexican Folktale, retold by Mary-Joan Gerson and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Barefoot, 2001) is a vibrant collection of stories which all feature strong women as their main characters - but it’s not just a book for girls. The stories are perfect for reading aloud and boys will listen just as raptly! I can see “Tengo hambre” (I’m hungry) becoming a well-used phrase in our house-hold, after listening to “The Hungry Goddess”, an exciting creation myth.

There are other goddesses:Tanga Yuh, who visits the town of Tehuantpec in the south of Mexico every New Year’s day; and Serpent Goddess, whose love for her daughter saves her from the enchantment that has turned her into the “Green Bird”. Then there’s the story of Blancaflor, the devil’s daughter, who saves Pedro from the pact he has entered into with her parents, El Diablo and La Diablesa. There is also “The Virgin of Guadalupe”, which tells the beautiful story of the Holy Virgin’s appearance to Juan Diego, telling him to go to the Bishop and tell him to build a church on top of the hill of Tepeyac and that she would protect the Indians of Mexico for ever.

My personal favorite is the story of “Why the Moon is Free”, in which the Moon tells her suitor the Sun that before he can marry her, he must make her a gift of beautiful clothing, which must fit her exactly… of course, it never does. I love the way the Sun says “¡Ay, mi amor! Love has stolen your appetite. You are looking so thin.” and then later “Ay, mi amor, you have gotten a little plump” Poor Sun, he simply cannot get the size right! The illustrations here, as indeed throughout the book, are gorgeous - colorful and expressive.

At the end, sources are explained and there’s a glossary and pronunciation guide - both very enriching and useful (some of the names, like Quetzalcóatl and Tezcatlipoca, are quite challenging!); and there is a Spanish edition available too.

Our fourth geographical area for our readaloud PaperTigers Reading Challenge book this month is the Americas and we chose Deborah Ellis’ I Am a Taxi. I was slightly concerned that it might prove too much for Little Brother (aged 7): but by making sure that we read the last few chapters during week-end morning “book sessions” rather than at bedtime, we had plenty of discussion time (drugs…) and no nightmares! Diego, the book’s 11-year-old hero, became a real person to my two boys. They absorbed details about Bolivia; they compared details of Diego’s life with their own; and they goggled at the encounters with nature in the jungle. It was salutary for me to observe that they did not really pick up on the sinister side to Smith until it was completely obvious, but trusted him as someone who was kind to Diego, which in the immediacy of dealing with jungle beasties, he was. This did, however, make the climax particularly shocking for them. It is a book that I think they will both pick up and read for themselves in a few years’ time – for now, it has been a very exciting readaloud for us all.

For more, take a look at what Shelf Elf and Elisabeth thought about it too.

Little Brother’s book also came from the Americas – Napí by Antonio Ramírez and illustrated by Domi. Here’s what he has to say about it:

Napí is about a little girl called Napí who loves to dream. She is a Mazateca Indian from Mexico. She likes herons and I think it’s beautiful when it says the trees bloomed with herons and it’s also quite funny. Napí often dreams she’s become a heron. The river dresses itself in different colours. The river smiles up at her and the rocks on the riverbank form teeth. In her dream she was followed by the moon and carried by the river and the moon had a face and the river had hands. The pictures had all the colours I know and some I didn’t. They are so spectacular! I give it 10/10!

La Bloga and Gina MarySol Ruiz have both published reviews in the past too…

Meanwhile, Older Brother (9) travelled to the other side of the world and read Kakadu Calling by Jane Garlil Christophersen, an elder of the Bunitj clan in Kakadu National Park, Australia:

These adventure stories are all set in the Australian Bush. I liked the book because all the stories had animals in them – a snake, a dingo and a hermit crab - as I love animals and it’s wonderful to me to be reading about wild animals in Australia. My favourite story was about a young boy who had to wait four full moons until his parents came to pick him up from his grandparents but he decides he wants to get home sooner and runs away. On his way he meets some buffalos and he wakes up to find a snake slithering across his chest. He wanted to run but he heard his father’s voice telling him to stay really still.

So, we have but one more book to go in our Reading Challenge 2008… We’ve been taking it gently but I would say there’s still time to leap in there; and at the end of the month, be ready to tell us your final booklists. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Since writing Friday’s post about books to accompany El Día de los Muertos celebrations, the world has heard the news about the terrible flooding in the Mexican state of Tabasco, which has left hundreds of thousands of people without their homes and at increasing risk from disease; as yet, the number of people who have lost their lives is unknown. Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones and are struggling for their own survival; and we pray for the continued strength of those providing aid and comfort in the face of such devastation.

Save the Children, Operation USA and the Red Cross are some of the charities which have set up disaster funds to help victims of the flooding in Mexico.