( 2 reviews )
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( 2 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jul 19 2006
Our family has enjoyed this book. We spent 8 months living in beautiful Antigua last year and this book brought back memories for us! As a mother of 5 Guatemalan children - I found this book a delightful way to introduce our children to the tradition of Semana Santa ( holy week). We have enjoyed Ms. Carling's book and would recommend it to anyone hoping to introduce young children to the traditions found in Guatemala.
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( 3 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: Aug 19 2005
The girl's family is visiting her aunt's family in Antigua for Holy Week because her baby cousin is going to be baptized on Easter. The tradition of glorious sawdust carpets, temporary art (like Navajo sand paintings) meant to be destroyed by the processions, is seen though her eyes. She is sad at her carpet's destruction, but able by Easter to plan next year's design. The rugs, a neighbor tells her, are "offerings to life." There are very few good picture books about Easter, outside of retellings of the Easter story itself, that give a hint at the feast's religious depths (Eric Kimmel's The Birds' Gift, Patricia Polacco's Chicken Sunday). This belongs on that select list. It's not for the sort of conservative Christian who looks negatively at other religious traditions. (On a shelf in the cousins' house, there "stood the Virgin of Guadalupe next to the Kuan Yin, our Chinese goddess. I thought they looked like friends. Incense swirled around them, bringing them together.") Liturgical Christians will appreciate it as the only picture book that connects Easter with baptism!
