Maya's Blanket/La Manta de Maya - Hardcover

Brown, Monica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892392924 ISBN 13: 9780892392926

Publisher: Children's Book Press (CA), 2015

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

The traditional Yiddish folk tale of the coat that is remade, over the years, into smaller and smaller garments, becomes an ideal bilingual story in the hands of Brown, who found inspiration in her Latino and Jewish heritage. Maya's special blue and green blanket has purple butterflies sewn by her own Abuelita when Maya was a baby. When it gets frayed around the edges, Abuelita helps her make it into a dress, and then later into a skirt, a scarf, and all the way to a bookmark when Maya is a bigger girl. Eventually she loses the bookmark, but she decides to write a book about the path her old blanket took. Brown ends with a hint of magic, as we see Maya reading the very book in our hands to her own daughter, who sleeps under a blanket that looks just like her mother s old butterfly-strewn one. The English and Spanish are side by side, and the English text uses the Spanish words for the garments that Maya and Abuelita make (such asfaldaandcinta). They are repeated again and again in Spanish as the story moves forward, a feature of the Yiddish tale that makes a helpful trick for little English speakers just learning Spanish. Diaz s jewel-toned mixed-media illustrations reward close attention, with clever details and a rich folkloric feel, all overlaid with a dreamy patina that makes Maya s world seem both grounded in reality and quietly magical.--Maria Russo"The New York Times" (09/15/2015)"

In a tender bilingual story inspired by a Yiddish folksong, Maya's beloved butterfly-laden blanket, made by herabuelitapasses through numerous incarnations. When the blanket frays, Maya and her grandmother fashion it into a dress and, later, a skirt. From there, it becomes a shawl, scarf, bookmark, and a story to pass down. In English and Spanish, Brown describes these transitions using a "House That Jack Built" structure: So with her own two hands and Abuelita s help, Maya made hervestidothat was hermantainto afaldathat she loved very much. The angular poses and vivid colors of Diaz s illustrations evoke the feeling of stained-glass windows in this uplifting story of passing time, enduring love, and creative reuse.--Publishers Weekly"Publishers Weekly" (09/15/2015)"

The traditional Yiddish folk tale of the coat that is remade, over the years, into smaller and smaller garments, becomes an ideal bilingual story in the hands of Brown, who found inspiration in her Latino and Jewish heritage. Maya's special blue and green blanket has purple butterflies sewn by her own Abuelita when Maya was a baby. When it gets frayed around the edges, Abuelita helps her make it into a dress, and then later into a skirt, a scarf, and all the way to a bookmark when Maya is a bigger girl. Eventually she loses the bookmark, but she decides to write a book about the path her old blanket took. Brown ends with a hint of magic, as we see Maya reading the very book in our hands to her own daughter, who sleeps under a blanket that looks just like her mother's old butterfly-strewn one. The English and Spanish are side by side, and the English text uses the Spanish words for the garments that Maya and Abuelita make (such asfaldaandcinta). They are repeated again and again in Spanish as the story moves forward, a feature of the Yiddish tale that makes a helpful trick for little English speakers just learning Spanish. Diaz's jewel-toned mixed-media illustrations reward close attention, with clever details and a rich folkloric feel, all overlaid with a dreamy patina that makes Maya's world seem both grounded in reality and quietly magical.

--Maria Russo"The New York Times" (09/15/2015)

In a tender bilingual story inspired by a Yiddish folksong, Maya's beloved butterfly-laden blanket, made by herabuelitapasses through numerous incarnations. When the blanket frays, Maya and her grandmother fashion it into a dress and, later, a skirt. From there, it becomes a shawl, scarf, bookmark, and a story to pass down. In English and Spanish, Brown describes these transitions using a "House That Jack Built" structure: "So with her own two hands and Abuelita's help, Maya made hervestidothat was hermantainto afaldathat she loved very much." The angular poses and vivid colors of Diaz's illustrations evoke the feeling of stained-glass windows in this uplifting story of passing time, enduring love, and creative reuse.

--Publishers Weekly"Publishers Weekly" (09/15/2015)

About the Author:

Monica Brown, Ph.D. is the author of many award-winning books for children, including Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People (Henry Holt), winner of the Americas Award for Children's Literature and an Orbis Pictus Honor for Outstanding Nonfiction, and Waiting for the Biblioburro (Random House), a Christopher Award winner. Her picture book Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match/Marisol McDonald no combina (Lee & Low) is the winner of the Tejas Star Book Award, the International Latino Book Award, and a Pura Belpre Honor for Illustration. Marisol McDonald and the Clash Bash/Marisol McDonald y la fiesta sin igual, the second book in the Marisol series, was published in September 2013.

Monica's books are inspired by her Peruvian-American heritage and desire to share Latino/a stories with children. "I write from a place of deep passion, joy, and commitment to producing the highest possible quality of literature for children. In my biographies, the lives of my subjects are so interesting and transformational that I am simply giving them voice for a young audience. I don't think it is ever too early to introduce children to the concepts of magical realism, social justice, and dreaming big!" Monica is in demand as a conference keynote speaker and has appeared at ALA, TLA, NCTE, Book Expo America, and at book festivals across the country.

Monica Brown is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, specializing in U.S. Latino Literature and Multicultural Literature. She writes and publishes scholarly work with a Latino/a focus, including Gang Nation: Delinquent Citizenship in Puerto Rican and Chicano and Chicana Literature; and numerous articles and chapters on Latino/a literature and cultural studies. She was the recipient of the prestigious Rockefeller Fellowship on Chicano Cultural Literacies from the Center for Chicano Studies at the University of California. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Flagstaff, Arizona.

About this edition

• Publisher: Children's Book Press (CA)
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0892392924
• ISBN 13: 9780892392926
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Diaz David