23 copies

I enjoyed reading this story because of its beautiful details in the illustrations and its descriptive language that added a lot of information about the Spanish culture to the storyline. This story's big idea of the importance of family and working together to live a happy life was shown well through these two aspects. The illustrations being pictures of handmade "arpilleras", sewn decorations made in Peru presented the reader with a whole other outlet into the culture than just the text would have. Each page contained picture of the arpilleras depicting aspects of the South American lifestyle, such as the houses, landscape, and jobs. Secondly, the authors thorough description of the family's lifestyle throughout the story kept the reader engaged with all of the interesting cultural aspects being discovered through the text. For example, while talking about her day, the main character explains how her family must do all of these specific things that make up their livelihood in South America such as wake up at dawn to plow their field and shear wool from their alpaca. These are unique cultural details that make this story very informational, which I really enjoyed about this book. ( )

all grades this book is good for showing how different cultures do things different ( )