Book Description
for Jade and Iron by Patricia Aldana
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
This unique anthology contains 14 tales from Native and Latin sources. The title refers to "worlds that co-exist in Latin America and are still struggling to find a way to live together." The tales are told or retold here by various Latin American authors and folklorists, including Carmen Diana Dearden. Each tale is four pages or less in length. Their origins vary: an Indian legend from southern Brazil and a Chimane Indian tale from the Brazilian Amazon; a Pemon legend and two folktales from Venezuela; three legends from individually distinct peoples of Chile; a legend of the Cora Indians of western Mexico and a tale from colonial Mexico; a folktale from Zapatera in Lake Nicaragua; and a Guatemalan folktale. Seventeen full-page illustrations created in pen and ink and watercolor are reproduced in full color. The editor is originally from Guatemala, while the illustrator was born in Nicaragua. (Ages 9-12)
CCBC Choices 1996. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1996. Used with permission.