Katacha Diaz

In my opinion, this book was an excellent story that heavily included the elements of the authors beautiful culture. I really enjoyed that language in this book. I liked how the author incorporated her native language, Quechua, showing us how people from her ethnicity communicate and the words/ phrases they use, like “Abuelita” meaning grandmother or granny and “quena”, a traditional flute of the Andes. I also liked how they author emphasized the importance of Sunday Market show more throughout the story. Starting from Carolina and her mother traveling into town to go to the Sunday Market, stopping at the many vendors that sell from flowers and food to ponchos and wood carvings; dancing and singing the traditional ballads the musicians play, and many more. Even though this story was about Carolina getting a gift for her grandmother’s birthday, the author made sure to walk us through the culture of a Sunday Market. Overall, I liked that Carolina wasn’t selfish about choosing a gift. Even though she could’ve picked anything from the market, she contemplated on what gift would best fit her grandmother, which ended up being a beautiful walking stick with a hummingbird at the top so that her grandmother could join Carolina and her mother the next time the travel to the Sunday market. I also believe it was about the importance of culture and educating readers about her customs and traditions. show less

"Carolina's Gift" was possibly my second favorite book that I read for these first books. I really enjoyed it because it highlighted a cultural group we don't normally get to explore in depth during classes: Peruvians. The art was also a great mix between children's style art, and a homage to Peruvian art style. The larger message is that you should always strive to find beauty in the culture and thinking of others, which is a great message to send to younger readers.

In my opinion this was an average book. The writing throughout the book was interesting because some of the text was in Spanish while most was in English. "'Flores!' shouts a vendor. 'Flowers'". This gave an insight to the language spoken in Mexico where Carolina lived. Throughout the story a lot of the Hispanic culture was shown through the different gifts Carolina picks out for her grandmother. She looks at flowers, eggs, blankets, hats, and a walking stick, all of these items are show more important to the Hispanic culture. There was also some descriptions with the items to give more information to the reader "The hats are pretty, but Carolina knows they are not for Abuelita. These hates are worn by women who are not married and looking for a husband". Overall the main idea of this story was to give a window into the life of a Hispanic child and provide information on the Mexican culture. show less

Carolina goes to the market to find a gift for her grandmother. She explains the items in the market and why they're not good gifts. Finally she purchases a walking cane so that Abuelita can also go to the market.

Great introduction to Peruvian culture. Some Spanish words mixed in with the English (which I usually don't like).