Maya's Blanket: La manta de Maya

by Monica Brown, David Diaz (Illustrator)

Overview

Bilingual English/Spanish. Based on a Yiddish folk song, a young girl's cherished baby blanket becomes old and worn over time and she finds new ways to use it as she grows up.

Little Maya has a special blanket that Grandma stitched with her own two hands. As Maya grows, her blanket becomes worn and frayed, so with Grandma's help, Maya makes it into a dress. Over time the dress is made into a skirt, a shawl, a scarf, a hair ribbon, and finally, a bookmark. Each item has special, magical, meaning for Maya; it animates her adventures, protects her, or helps her in some way. But when Maya loses her bookmark, she preserves her memories by creating a book about her adventures and love of these items. When Maya grows up, she shares her book—Maya's Blanket/La manta de Maya—with her own little daughter while snuggled under her own special blanket.

Inspired by the traditional Yiddish folk song "Hob Ikh Mir a Mantl" ("I Had a Little Coat"), this delightful bilingual picture book puts a child-focused, Latino spin on the tale of an item that is made into smaller and smaller items. Maya's Blanket/La manta de Maya charmingly brings to life this celebration creativity, recycling, and enduring family love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892392926
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	06/01/2015
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	106,552
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 10.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Language:	Spanish
Lexile:	AD780L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Monica Brown is the award-winning author of over thirty books for children, including Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/no combina, Sharuko, Maya's Blanket/la manta de Maya, Waiting for the Biblioburro, Frida and Her Animalitos, and El Cuarto Turquesa/The Turquoise Room, as well as the Lola Levine chapter book series, among many others. She is the recipient of the Christopher Award, two Américas Awards, and multiple starred reviews. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages, and has appeared in the NYTimes, The Washington Post, and on NPR's All Things Considered. When not writing for children, Brown serves as a professor of English at Northern Arizona University, where she teaches about US Latino and multicultural literature. Brown lives with her family in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her website is monicabrown.net.

David Diaz won the Caldecott Medal in 1995 for Smoky Night. He is the illustrator of many other popular children's books as well, including December, Roadrunner's Dance, Going Home, and Wilma Unlimited. Diaz is also an accomplished potter, and he has sold his work to collectors throughout the country. He lives in Carlsbad, California.

Editorial Reviews

The traditional Yiddish folk tale of the coat that is remade, over the years, into smaller and smaller garments, becomes an ideal bilingual story in the hands of Brown, who found inspiration in her Latino and Jewish heritage…Diaz's jewel-toned mixed-media illustrations reward close attention, with clever details and a rich folkloric feel, all overlaid with a dreamy patina that makes Maya's world seem both grounded in reality and quietly magical.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

06/15/2015
In a tender bilingual story inspired by a Yiddish folksong, Maya’s beloved butterfly-laden blanket, made by her abuelita, passes through numerous incarnations. When the blanket frays, Maya and her grandmother fashion it into a dress and, later, a skirt. From there, it becomes a shawl, scarf, bookmark, and a story to pass down. In English and Spanish, Brown describes these transitions using a “House That Jack Built” structure: “So with her own two hands and Abuelita’s help, Maya made her vestido that was her manta into a falda that she loved very much.” The angular poses and vivid colors of Diaz’s illustrations evoke the feeling of stained-glass windows in this uplifting story of passing time, enduring love, and creative reuse. Ages 5–9. Author’s agent: Stefanie von Borstel, Full Circle Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

* "This book is a great storytime addition for school-aged children due to its sincere and simple writing that translates well in both Spanish and English, the representation of culturally diverse characters, and the underlying message of resourcefulness, imagination, and appreciation for family traditions. Readers will also be entranced by the eye-catching illustrations of Maya's ordinary-to-extraordinary life.... Thanks to the depth of the images and the thoughtful text, readers will thoroughly enjoy wondering what Maya's blanket will be next." — School Library Journal, starred review

"A familiar tale crosses cultures with almost magical ease. The story is based on the well-known Jewish folk tale in which an old, worn coat is turned into a jacket, then a vest, then a tie, here given a warm, Latino spin.... Diaz's beautiful, mixed-media illustrations feel like another sort of magic.... Readers may be eager to tell their own versions of the story—that's how magic works." — Kirkus Reviews

"[A] tender bilingual story inspired by a Yiddish folksong... The angular poses and vivid colors of Diaz's illustrations evoke the feeling of stained-glass windows in this uplifting story of passing time, enduring love, and creative reuse." — Publishers Weekly

"The traditional Yiddish folk tale of the coat that is remade, over the years, into smaller and smaller garments, becomes an ideal bilingual story in the hands of Brown, who found inspiration in her Latino andJewish heritage.... Diaz's jewel-toned mixed-media illustrations reward close attention, with clever details and a rich folkloric feel, all overlaid with a dreamy patina that makes Maya's world seem both grounded in reality and quietly magical." — The New York Times

"This graceful, contemporary retelling of the traditional Yiddish folksong 'I Had a Little Coat' blends the author's Jewish and Latina heritage boldly and beautifully.... Caldecott Medal winner Diaz's (Smoky Night, 1995) illustrations bring a vibrancy to the narrative and infuse every page with luminous colors and textures.... Though culturally specific, its themes of love, longevity, and heritage are universal. This will beloved by readers of all ages as long as there are grandmothers and grandchildren, and it is a perfect choice for bilingual storytimes." — Booklist

Américas Award Commended Title - Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs
Best Children's Books of the Year - Bank Street College of Education
Bock Book Award - Neumann University
CCBC Choices - Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Charlotte Zolotow Award Commended Title - Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Junior Library Guild Selection
Monarch Award - Association of Illinois School Library Educators
Notable Books for a Global Society - International Literacy Association (ILA)
Tejas Star Reading List - Texas Library Association (TLA)

From the Publisher

The traditional Yiddish folk tale of the coat that is remade, over the years, into smaller and smaller garments, becomes an ideal bilingual story in the hands of Brown, who found inspiration in her Latino and Jewish heritage. Maya's special blue and green blanket has purple butterflies sewn by her own Abuelita when Maya was a baby. When it gets frayed around the edges, Abuelita helps her make it into a dress, and then later into a skirt, a scarf, and all the way to a bookmark when Maya is a bigger girl. Eventually she loses the bookmark, but she decides to write a book about the path her old blanket took. Brown ends with a hint of magic, as we see Maya reading the very book in our hands to her own daughter, who sleeps under a blanket that looks just like her mother’s old butterfly-strewn one. The English and Spanish are side by side, and the English text uses the Spanish words for the garments that Maya and Abuelita make (such asfaldaandcinta). They are repeated again and again in Spanish as the story moves forward, a feature of the Yiddish tale that makes a helpful trick for little English speakers just learning Spanish. Diaz’s jewel-toned mixed-media illustrations reward close attention, with clever details and a rich folkloric feel, all overlaid with a dreamy patina that makes Maya’s world seem both grounded in reality and quietly magical.

The New York Times - Maria Russo

★ 10/01/2015
Gr 1–3—Following the narrative styles of a traditional Yiddish folk song, Maya's Blanket/La manta de Maya tells the story of a child's most beloved possession: her blue and green handmade blanket with purple butterfly stitches. Maya's grandmother made it to protect her from bad dreams. Yet as time passes and the blanket becomes worn and frayed, it is remade into a dress, a skirt, a shawl, and more. Similar to Nancy Andrews-Goebel's The Pot that Juan Built (Lee & Low, 2002), the story repeatedly reminds readers of the creative transformations that Maya and her grandmother employ to turn the beloved blanket into another useful accessory. This book is a great storytime addition for school-aged children due to its sincere and simple writing that translates well in both Spanish and English, the representation of culturally diverse characters, and the underlying message of resourcefulness, imagination, and appreciation for family traditions. Readers will also be entranced by the eye-catching illustrations of Maya's ordinary-to-extraordinary life. Created with mixed media, the graphics are illuminating with rich color and texture. Thanks to the depth of the images and the thoughtful text, readers will thoroughly enjoy wondering what Maya's blanket will be next. VERDICT A Latino-influenced and Yiddish-inspired tale that is recommended for Spanish readers and librarians in diverse communities.—Jessica Espejel, Brooklyn Public Library

School Library Journal

2015-06-10
A familiar tale crosses cultures with almost magical ease.The story is based on the well-known Jewish folk tale in which an old, worn coat is turned into a jacket, then a vest, then a tie, here given a warm, Latino spin. Not only does Brown's text alternate passages in English with sections in Spanish translated by Domínguez, but on some pages, nearly every sentence is written in two languages: "Maya made her manta into a vestido that she loved very much." The effect isn't subtle, and at first, every paragraph feels like a vocabulary lesson. But as the sentences get longer, the language becomes hypnotic. As Maya's blanket is recut and resewn, the words begin to sound like an incantation: "So with her own two hands and Abuelita's help, Maya made her rebozo that was her falda that was her vestido that was her manta into a bufanda that she loved very much." It sounds like a magic spell to preserve the garment for all time. Sometimes spells work: Maya turns the blanket into a story, the same picture book that is in readers' hands. Diaz's beautiful, mixed-media illustrations feel like another sort of magic. The moon looks like a pomegranate. A spinning jump rope looks like water shooting from a fountain. As the book ends, Maya's daughter is sleeping under "her own special, magical manta." Readers may be eager to tell their own versions of the story—that's how magic works. (author's note, glossary) (Bilingual picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews