Prietita and the Ghost Woman = Prietita y la llorona

This book does a great job of challenging the history of the Ghost Woman, of Latino folklore, and in dong so, also brings us through the change in expectations a young Latina has of herself.

My first takeaway from this story was the beautiful illustrations. They really helped tell the story. I also admired that the Spanish version was printed so that the story could be told and read in Spanish as well. This is a great story that shows that things aren’t always the way we are told that they are. It was admirable that Prietita overlooked dan-ger in order to help her mother.

I enjoyed reading this book, and I liked the turn they took with la llorona. She is typically a character to be feared, but instead she turns out to be very helpful. I'm not sure if there was any clear moral to the story.

Illustrator Gonzalez uses a dark palette to tell the story of a young girl in search of healing herbs to help her mother. Prietita is guided to safety by la Llorona when she becomes lost. This is a feminist version of the Mexican folk tale, and Gonzalez uses strong female characters to illustrate the story. She captures the essence of the kind and knowing healer—la curandera. Gonzalez also uses many modern and ancient symbols found in Mexico and the border states, such as chiles, garlic, prickly pear cactus, and jaguarundi. She includes swirls of yellow to indicate movement that help the stories flow and signify Prietita’s journey. Gonzalez’s illustrations nicely complement Anzaldúa’s text

This book is of a famous Mexican legend, the story of a girl whose mother is sick, and looking for a healing plant discovers the ghost woman, or La Llorona. The illustrations detail the story, which is told in both Spanish and English. Gonzalez uses an interesting mix of colors and shapes to make this book an upper elementary favorite.

This book was okay. I thought it might be a little scary for some kids, so you would need to make sure this went to 5th and 6th graders. This is a book based on a Mexican legend about a ghost that is supposed to heal people, so I think the ghost aspect might be a little scary for some kids. But, overall the book was good, and like I have noticed with all of the Latino books, the illustrations are amazing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_E._Anzald%C3%BAa