Citlali and the Day of the Dead: Citlali y el Día de Muertos
Citlali and the Day of the Dead: Citlali y el Día de Muertos
Author: Berta de Llano
Illustrator: Jamie Rivera Contreras
Published: August 11, 2020
32 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Date Read: September 21, 2020
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
GRADES PK–3: This 32 page storybook follows Citlali through her Day of the Dead celebration. Readers will get a glimpse of the festivities and traditions associated with the important holiday.
CULTURAL STORYTELLING: This traditional Hispanic folktale with original illustrations, told in bold English and Spanish, captures a child’s interest while engaging them with a story that fosters reading and cultural literacy.
FEATURES: With English and Spanish translations, this storybook is a great resource for strengthening reading skills and foreign language comprehension.
Jessica’s Review:
This colorful children’s picture book talks about the real Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. This year it runs from October 31- November 2. The story shows Citali and getting ready for Day of the Dead in school as her class is in charge of the ofrenda (offering) this year. The Day of the Dead is where families fondly remember those who have passed away. It is a happy remembrance.
This is Citali’s first year honoring Mama Elena and she is having the most difficult time picking an item to bring to the ofrenda to remember her. Citali wants her remembrance of Mama Elena to be a special one.
The pictures are very colorful as is the Day of the Dead holiday. It is a very basic introduction to the holiday, though to me it does not explain much. I had to look up what the meaning of what ofrenda was, which was the purpose of the story. I had to look up the Day of the Dead in general as I have no knowledge of the holiday. This would be a good story for children who already have knowledge of the Day of the Dead holiday, but not an introduction to it.
I did like that the children’s book is in both Spanish and English. That way if a child is working on learning a second language, they do have a reference point to their original language, be it Spanish or English.
Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a review copy via Amazon Vine.