Day of the Dead, by Tony Johnston and illustrated by Jeanette Winter, is a delightful story about a family's routine during their Day of the Dead traditions. The story begins at sunrise and ends when the sun falls. When I picked up this book at the UNM library I knew that it was going to be good as soon as I read the first page. The page reads "Above a small town in Mexico, the sun rises like a great marigold." The text is accompanied by a large bright marigold as a sun peaking over cool toned houses in a small town's skyline. The combination of text and illustration immediately drew me in!
Personally, I love Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead celebrations here in New Mexico. My family and I always go down to the Dia de los Muertos parade down on Rio Grande to celebrate. I would even consider bringing a small class to the parade to enjoy some of the festivities.
This book would be perfect for a classroom in New Mexico to teach students some cultural traditions that are celebrated in New Mexico that they may not be aware of. Learning about this tradition gives students an excellent chance to talk about how other cultures view afterlife (a great discussion for older classrooms). The holiday is also accompanied by wonderful food and art. This could easily be brought into the classroom. For example, the book mentions tamales, empanadas, mole, and sugar skulls, among many others.
This book itself also has absolutely beautiful illustrations. The book is a small square. Each page has a central illustration that tells the story of the text, but around this image is a boarder featuring repetitive images of the main theme of the page. That sounds a little conveluted, I know, but if you check out this book it will make WAY more sense and I guarantee that it's pretty awesome.
And! Oh my goodness did I hit the jackpot online! I found a unit (group of lessons) that is centered around Day of the Dead traditions where the first lesson includes reading this book. It was created in partnership with Denver Public Schools and Metropolitan State College in Denver.
here's the link!
http://www.dpsk12.org/programs/almaproject/pdf/ElDiadelosMuertos.pdf
Bridget! I really enjoyed your book talk. It was really cool hearing you talk about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) because it seems like you really like it. It even made me want to read the book and go to the celebration that they have every year. I agree with all of your ideas about how we can use this book in the classroom. I also think that the kids could maybe do an art project with this. They could make their own sugar skull masks and showcase them in the classroom. I bet they would love that! :). Thanks for the link that you provided, it is very helpful and has lots of good information.
ReplyDeleteI loved this book and being a part of your group for a week ;) Haha.
ReplyDeleteI think this was the most enthusiastic I have seen someone about a book, and it was great that it was because you love the content. I think living in New Mexico it is super important to learn about Dia de Los Muertos, and sometimes I think it gets run into the ground, but this is a book full of information but that is interesting and the pictures are so creative!
This was a very good book to pick for New Mexico and I would use this in my classroom around this time of the year for sure :)
I love this! I think that because most children always focus on Halloween time with ghosts and zombies and what not that this book is a great way to include another culture into a familiar holiday. When i went to school we went all out for did de los muertos and everyone would decorate sugar skulls and we would put the name of someone who passed away on them. We would all talk about that person and share out decorations with the class. It is a great way to learn and I love honoring my grandpa Paul whose name I always out on the skull. We would put all the skulls from the whole school all together at night, it was awesome. Also a great movie to go along with this book is the Halloween Tree, it is literally the best movie of all time but impossible to find so good luck!
ReplyDelete