The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El día que nevó tortillas: Folktales told in Spanish and English

by Joe Hayes, Antonio Castro L. (Illustrator)

Overview

Gather 'round master storyteller Joe Hayes to hear tales of wisdom, magic, trickery, and more, from old New Mexican folklore. Side-by-side English and Spanish text.

The tales in this collection have been shared for over four hundred years—since the Spanish reached New Mexico. In the hands of witty Joe Hayes, it's especially easy to see the magic that has kept these stories alive generation after generation. In the title story, a very clever woman saves her silly husband from a band of robbers—by making the old man believe it snowed tortillas during the night! The enchantment continues in story after story—a clever thief tricks a king for his kingdom and a prince finds his beloved in a house full of wicked step-sisters. And of course, we listen to the ancient tale of the weeping woman, La Llorona, who still searches for her drowned children along the riverbanks.

Each tale is further brought to life by an illustration from award winning artist, Antonio Castro Lopez. A helpful afterword also adds helpful and interesting historical notes for each story.

Los cuentos de esta colección han sido compartidos durante más de cuatrocientos años, desde que los españoles llegaron a Nuevo México. En manos del ingenioso Joe Hayes, es especialmente fácil ver la magia que ha mantenido vivas estas historias generación tras generación. En la historia principal, una mujer muy inteligente salva a su marido despistado de una banda de ladrones, ¡al hacerle creer al anciano que nevaron tortillas durante la noche! El encantamiento continúa historia tras historia: un astuto ladrón engaña a un rey para quedarse con su reino y un príncipe encuentra a su amada en una casa llena de malvadas hermanastras. Y por supuesto, escuchamos el antiguo cuento de La Llorona que aún busca a sus hijos ahogados por las orillas del río.

Cada cuento toma vida aún más claramente con una ilustración del galardonado artista Antonio Castro López. Un útil epílogo también agrega notas históricas útiles e interesantes para cada historia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780938317760
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	10/01/2003
Edition description:	Bilingual Edition (English/Spanish)
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	249,571
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Language:	Spanish
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Joe Hayes is one of America's premier storytellers. He grew up in a small town in southern Arizona where he started learning Spanish from his classmates. As Hayes got older, he began reading the work of folklorists and anthropologists and gathering the old stories from the Southwest region. His books have received the Arizona Young Readers Award, two Land of Enchantment Children's Book Awards, the Texas Bluebonnet award, and the National Storytelling Network Talking Leaves Award. He lives in New Mexico.

Antonio Castro L. was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and has lived in the Juarez-El Paso area for most of his life. He was awarded a prestigious Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Honor for his illustrations in My Tata's Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata. He has also illustrated several other picture books for Cinco Puntos Press, including The Gum Chewing Rattler and My Pet Rattlesnake.

Editorial Reviews

"The stories are well told, rhythmic, and spellbinding, both in English and in the colloquial Spanish. An excellent purchase for storytelling librarians or for schools with storytelling clubs." — School Library Journal

"Recognized as Cinco Puntos's best-selling author, Hayes has written such modern favorites as El Cucuy! A Bogeyman Cuento in English and Spanish(2001).... The Day it Snowed Tortillas was originally published in English in the 1980s and has sold almost 40,000 copies. Now available in a bilingual edition with new artwork by Antonio L. Castro, this collection's title story tells the tale of a poor woodcutter and his very clever wife." — Críticas

"The wide range of stories offers something enjoyable for everyone.... Overall, the book is enjoyable and fun." — Children's Literature

"Full of magical twists and turns that are just as entertaining to grownups as to the intended audience: children. Like the word tortilla, these folktales with their colorful characters and magical settings maintain a charm that transcends all language barriers." — San Antonio Express-News

From the Publisher

Gr 4-6-Recognized as Cinco Puntos's best-selling author, Hayes has written such modern favorites as El Cucuy! A Bogeyman Cuento in English and Spanish (2001); La Llorona: The Weeping Woman (1987); and, most recently, Pajaro verde/The Green Bird (2002). The Day it Snowed Tortillas was originally published in English in the 1980s and has sold almost 40,000 copies. Now available in a bilingual edition with new artwork by Antonio L. Castro, this collection's title story tells the tale of a poor woodcutter and his very clever wife. When the woodcutter comes home with three bags of gold he has found, his wife knows he cannot be trusted to keep the secret. Due out in October, the review will appear in the next issue of Criticas. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Criticas

Gr 4 Up-A master storyteller sets down 10 tales told in New Mexico. In the title story, a clever wife diverts some thieves who are after her dim-witted husband, thus assuring the couple's prosperity. In a cumulative tale, a little ant escapes being stuck forever in the cold under a large snowflake by enlisting help from tiny cousin flea. The stories are well told, rhythmic, and spellbinding, both in English and in the colloquial Spanish. Hayes is a fine translator, and these stories are a testament to his expert execution of this exacting art. The format indicates that the book is designed more for the storyteller than for the reader. A paragraph of English text alternates with the same paragraph in Spanish. This makes for choppy reading, but is a natural and helpful division if the tale is being memorized. Each story begins with a full-page pencil drawing. Photographic in detail, Castro L.'s art extends the stories a bit. Notes to the stories give history as well as the Arne-Thompson numbers for the tale type. Similar in content to Carmen Diana Dearden's Little Book of Latin American Folktales (Groundwood, 2003), Hayes's work is the better told of the two. It could be used alongside Mary-Joan Gerson's excellent Fiesta Femenina (Barefoot, 2001) for a storytime that points out similarities and differences in Mexican and New Mexican folktales. An excellent purchase for storytelling librarians or for schools with storytelling clubs. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal