About.com Rating



A Gift for Abuelita: Celebrating the Day of the Dead / Un regalo para Abuelita: En celebración del Dia de los Muertos is, as the dual titles suggest, a bilingual picture book. Author Nancy Luenn tells the story of a young Mexican girl's search for comfort after the death of her beloved grandmother and how Day of the Dead events provide that comfort.

The Story and Day of the Dead Connection

Rosita and her grandmother (Abuelita) are together daily.

Abuelita is very loving and helpful. She teaches Rosita how to make a cord by braiding strands of yarn together. The two make up songs together. Once she learns “what to pull and what to save,” Rosita helps her grandmother in the garden and helps her cook. All of this ends when her grandmother gets sick and dies.
Since Rosita had been very close to her grandmother, she is grief-stricken when Abuelita dies. Her grandfather suggests that Rosita make her grandmother "a gift for when she visits us on the Day of the Dead." While confused about what it could mean to have her grandmother visit, Rosita is eager to make her a gift. While other family members work on their gifts for those they want to remember, Rosita at first can’t think of anything she can make. Remembering what her grandmother taught her, Rosita decides to make a braided cord as an ofrenda (offering) for her grandmother. When she takes the cord to her grandmother's grave, Rosita feels her grandmother's love surround her.

The Illustrations

This tender story by Nancy Luenn is beautiful illustrated.

Artist Robert Chapman used mixed media on cast paper for the artwork in A Gift for Abuelita: Celebrating the Day of the Dead. The result is unique illustrations, with many of the illustration looking like heavily embroidered fabric collages adorned with three-dimensional embellishments.

A Gift for Abuelita: In Addition

In addition to the appealing story and illustrations, the book’s layout works well. Facing each full-page illustration is a page of text. The words of the English version of the story are at the top and the words of the Spanish version are at the bottom of the page, with a small illustration separating them. At the end of the book, the Author’s Note gives additional information about the Day of the Dead holiday and the Illustrator’s Note explains how the artwork for the book was created. A glossary provides definitions and a pronunciation guide for the Spanish words included in the English version of the story.

My Recommendation

I recommend A Gift for Abuelita: Celebrating the Day of the Dead / Un regalo para Abuelita: En celebración del Dia de los Muertos for 7-11 year olds. I also recommend the book for Spanish language students in middle and high school since reading it would provide both practice in reading Spanish and insight into an interesting aspect of Mexican culture. (Luna Rising, A Bilingual Imprint of Rising Moon, 1998. ISBN: 9780873586887)