Book Description

Discover the legend of the magical trouble dolls - traditional Guatemalan good luck charms. Learn about the fascinating games, foods, crafts, and folktales of the Mayan civilization in Guatemala. Then, with your own set of six tiny trouble dolls, wish for good luck and happiness! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Bravo!
Beautiful story in a tiny book packed with lots of cultural information. A true gem.

A cultural find!
As an parent of a child who was adopted from Guatemala, I try to collect things that represent her birth country. When my 8 year old daughter came home from school with the Scholastic Book order form I was amazed to see "Trouble Dolls, A Guatemalan Legend". Surprisingly, the book is more than I imagined. There are 64 4" x 4" pages with beautiful, brightly colored illustrations reflecting Mayan weavings and life. The content is varied and comprehensive for a book it's size and includes unusual topics not found in other children's books that cover the same subject. Topics include: a pronunciation guide for speaking Maya, Guatemalan social customs, a typical Guatemalan menu, including Guatemalan hot chocolate and how to carry your school books Guatemalan style! Of course, the legend of the Trouble Dolls and four different ways to use them is included! This book has become one of my daughter's favorites that she proudly shares with her friends. They, too, have become fans of the book and have since ordered it themselves. It's a must have for any child from Latin America, particularly Guatemala, and for others interested in our cultural world. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Wonderful Pictures and information!
This is a great book for young children. Excellent first book for teaching kids about another county. I enjoyed the book very much and I am an adult! It offers lots of nice color photographs and discusses everyday life of the typical Guatemala family. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

A BILINGUAL DELIGHT !!
Tio Rico lives in a village in Oaxaca (wah-ha-kah), Mexico. He is a 77 year-old who became a pinata maker when rheumatism made it too difficult to continue his business of making sombreros.

A village boy collects newspapers and concrete sacks for Tio Rico. These he uses to fashion unusual and decorative pinatas. The process is explained by a delightful profusion of photographs which accompany the story. The author, George Ancona, also shows "puppets" which are child-size papier-mache forms worn by young folk dancers. He shows his own version of pinata formed over cardboard or balloons for those of us who cannot buy clay pots at a local market.

Children everywhere will enjoy this colorful book and be eager to try the craft. With luck, they will have patient teachers and learn some Spanish and/or English words, too! My favorite companion book is "Colors of Mexico" (isbn: #1575052164), illustrated by Janice Porter.

"THE PINATA MAKER" is a 5-star book for adults as well as children, and most appropriate for the 2003 church women's study of Mexico. Find a group of children to share this book with, and increase your enjoyment three-fold.

A Charming and Interesting Bilingual Book
The Piñata Maker describes how a Mexican gentleman, Don Ricardo, became a piñata maker. It elaborates on how he makes his beautiful piñatas, while including a description of his way of life. The book is fantastic for individuals who are studying either English or Spanish. I'm using it both to become more familiar with Spanish and to teach English to a Spanish speaking person. It is written on an appropriate level for adults to use in this manner, but it is also an excellent book for children.

Heart warming and educational book
Both my 5 & 3 year-old children LOVE this book. It is a nice combo of something fun (the pinatas, the design, & just the thought of candy...) and reality (photos of Don making pinatas). It is simple enough for them to understand, and captivating enough for even my younger child. We haven't delved much into the spanish text, but will eventually. For now, we're working on making the star for my daughter's sixth birthday party! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A useful, colorful, and inexpensive (!) title
It's hard to find good books on El Salvador that aren't about the war, and believe me, I've looked! My husband is Salvadoran and I'm a Spanish teacher trying to show there's more to Central America than just Costa Rica. The two good children's books our library carries were written back when the war was still going on, and I've been looking for a newer book to recommend as a library acquisition. Now I have at least one entry for my list, and the paperback version is a bargain for any home library as well.

The book has only 32 pages, so while it touches on many subjects, each only gets a two-page spread. Within these limitations, though, the book presents useful information in a narrative form and with minimal bias. The "struggle and civil war" section does a remarkably good job of giving background behind conflicts such as La Guerra de Fútbol ("the Soccer War"). The section on "Native Peoples" gives a good treatment of the assimilation of these groups, with a look at the Pipíl and Lenca peoples in the present day. The book's discussion of the post-peace agreement period is very general, and despite the 2002 copyright, no mention is made of the devastating earthquakes of January and February, 2001; I can only assume the book had already gone to press.

Halfway through the book, the book changes from a general overview into a more vignette-style presentation of selected topics under the usual headings ("Music and Dance," etc.). The section on family traditions, for example, gives one or two paragraphs each to baptisms, birthdays, quinceañeras, folk beliefs and "curanderas" (folk healers). In these sections, the presentation is a bit haphazard, but still provides worthwhile material. The arts and crafts section includes the role of cooperatives and political art; another topic, "The Flavors of El Salvador," brings food into a detailed and interesting depiction of daily life. The only part of the book I didn't care for is the ending, a fictional episode of a family visit; it tries a little too hard to tie in every kind of cultural topics via stilted and unnatural dialogue. The youngest readers probably won't mind, but upper elementary and middle schoolers would roll their eyes.

The "Life in the Countryside" section is a treasure. The pictures show everyday life much as I saw it when I went to visit my in-laws in early 2002. Nearly every sentence has some detail that made me shout with recognition, such as the mention of using car batteries to power TVs and radios. Oddly, the book doesn't mention the solar collectors powering the batteries, an interesting topic for kids. Also, the book mentioned the scarcity of vehicles, indoor plumbing, and electricity, yet said nothing about phones. A country with so many expatriates is a country that cares a LOT about phones, and life has been profoundly affected by a boom in cell-phones in "el campo," where a phone call used to require an hourlong walk to town.

While this series only covers 22 countries so far, the publishers have wisely avoided the tactic of presenting all the "usual suspects" before getting to the lesser known countries. It's refreshing to see countries like Nigeria and the Philippines among these titles -- you expect that with long-running series that cover every single country, but for a series that only covers a fraction of the world's peoples, it's nice to see someone went beyond the obvious. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A useful, colorful (and inexpensive!) title
(Note: Somehow this review was previously mis-assigned to the companion volume, El Salvador: The Land.)

It's hard to find good books on El Salvador that aren't about the war, and believe me, I've looked! My husband is Salvadoran and I'm a Spanish teacher trying to show there's more to Central America than just Costa Rica. The two good children's books our library carries were written back when the war was still going on, and I've been looking for a newer book to recommend as a library acquisition. Now I have at least one entry for my list, and the paperback version is a bargain for any home library as well.

The book has only 32 pages, so while it touches on many subjects, each only gets a two-page spread. Within these limitations, though, the book presents useful information in a narrative form and with minimal bias. The "struggle and civil war" section does a remarkably good job of giving background behind conflicts such as La Guerra de Fútbol ("the Soccer War"). The section on "Native Peoples" gives a good treatment of the assimilation of these groups, with a look at the Pipíl and Lenca peoples in the present day. The book's discussion of the post-peace agreement period is very general, and despite the 2002 copyright, no mention is made of the devastating earthquakes of January and February, 2001; I can only assume the book had already gone to press.

Halfway through the book, the book changes from a general overview into a more vignette-style presentation of selected topics under the usual headings ("Music and Dance," etc.). The section on family traditions, for example, gives one or two paragraphs each to baptisms, birthdays, quinceañeras, folk beliefs and "curanderas" (folk healers). In these sections, the presentation is a bit haphazard, but still provides worthwhile material. The arts and crafts section includes the role of cooperatives and political art; another topic, "The Flavors of El Salvador," brings food into a detailed and interesting depiction of daily life. The only part of the book I didn't care for is the ending, a fictional episode of a family visit; it tries a little too hard to tie in every kind of cultural topics via stilted and unnatural dialogue. The youngest readers probably won't mind, but upper elementary and middle schoolers would roll their eyes.

The "Life in the Countryside" section is a treasure. The pictures show everyday life much as I saw it when I went to visit my in-laws in early 2002. Nearly every sentence has some detail that made me shout with recognition, such as the mention of using car batteries to power TVs and radios. Oddly, the book doesn't mention the solar collectors powering the batteries, an interesting topic for kids. Also, the book mentioned the scarcity of vehicles, indoor plumbing, and electricity, yet said nothing about phones. A country with so many expatriates is a country that cares a LOT about phones, and life has been profoundly affected by a boom in cell-phones in "el campo," where a phone call used to require an hourlong walk to town.

While this series only covers 22 countries so far, the publishers have wisely avoided the tactic of presenting all the "usual suspects" before getting to the lesser known countries. It's refreshing to see countries like Nigeria and the Philippines among these titles -- you expect that with long-running series that cover every single country, but for a series that only covers a fraction of the world's peoples, it's nice to see someone went beyond the obvious. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Resource for Teachers!
This book is great! I highly recommend it for teachers looking for resources to teach Mexico! It is suitable for 1st-5th grades (yes, it spans that many!) It's packed with information as well as hands-on activities your students can actively engage in and learn! Excellent! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

EXCELLENT ***
I really liked this book. It's good for sixth graders who have Nicaragua as a project. It was this book that got my grade up. I would give this book ***** and the author ***** stars.

EXCELLENT ****
I really liked this book. It's good for sixth graders who have Nicaragua as a project. It was this book that got my grade up. I would give this book ***** and the author ***** stars. ... Read more

Book Description

Over five hundred years ago, there lived a thirteen-year-old Inca girl in the mountains of Peru. Because of her perfect beauty, she was chosen to be the official sacrifice to the god of Mount Ampato. Feasting began days before the actual ceremony and priests gave the girl elaborate costumes to wear. Then the time came for her to be given to the mountain.

Centuries have passed and it is 1990. Hiking on the snowy peak of Mount Ampato, an archeologist and a mountain elimber make an unusual find: charred wood and other signs of ancient human life buried in the frozen ground. Before long, they uncover the mummified body of a young girl, and a scientific inquiry begins.

In this companion book to his award-winning Frozen Man, author David Getz gives young readers an up-close look at the discovery of the Incan mummy. He shows how scientists pieced together clues to the frozen girl's identity, including theories on how and why she was sacrificed. Evocative illustrations from Peter McCarty bring the girl and her culture to life. Photographs of the actual mummy are also included. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Real Anthropology
Gripping and suspenseful, this well written text affords a rare glimpse into the realm of anthropological studies, lending itself as an excellent tool for teachers studing South American Cultures. Sensative readers may be disturbed by photos in the text and the sacraficial death of the Peruvian children.

THE BOOK WAS GOOD
I THINK YOU SHOULD READ IT IF YOU NEED A BOOK TO READ IT'S NOT BAD AT ALL! READ IT!! ... Read more