A wonderful introduction into other ways of celebrating. I would have the children explore cultures other than their owns after reading this book.

For every month of the year, this book describes the Latino holiday/celebrations. Students from any culture can be interested in what happens each month in the countries right below the United States. For the students that are culturally related to the Latino or Hispanic, they will be thrilled to hear facts about their home countries.

As for an activity, if the population of the classroom is majority Latino/Hispanic, the class can do a mini version of the celebration from the book every month. The students will be looking forward to the celebration and invested in the activity. For example, in November-Day of the Dead; students can create a shrine for a loved one or make an offering for a loved one that is appropriate. ( )

Summary:
This book provides details about different festivals/holidays that Latino's celebrate throughout the year. It provides one Festival/Holiday for each month of the year. It explains what the festivals/holidays are, why they celebrate it, and how they celebrate it. The book provides pictures to go along with the festivals/holidays. It starts with the month of January, where the Latino's celebrate "Fiesta de San Antonio Abad," (pg. 1-2). Along the way they talk about Corn-Planting Ceremony in March, Cinco De Mayo in May, and Aguas de Oxala in September. The book ends with the month of December, where it talks about Dia de Los Santos Inocents.

Critique:
This a great read for the upper grades when they are learning about the different cultures. It is a book about the different festivals/holidays that Latino community celebrate. Students can use this book to compare it to the culture found in the United States. For example, in the United States we celebrate April Fool’s Day on the first day of April. Latino's actually have a similar holiday in December. They have Los Santos Inocentes (Day of the Innocent Saints) on December 28th. On this day they use foolish toys and handwritten notes to play tricks on their friends and families. Which is basically what Americans do, we use lies and play tricks on each other to make the other person feel foolish. Hence the name April Fool’s Day. This is also a good book to teach students how to say the months in Spanish. On left side of the book is the English version of the month, and on the right side is the Spanish version.

Prompts:
Have pictures printed out of each holiday, and hold them up to show the students while reading about it in the book.
Have the months printed out on cards (written both in English and Spanish), as well as the different Festivals/Holidays. Pass the cards out to the students before reading. While reading the students have to pay attention to the months and names of the Festivals/Holidays. When the teacher says a month and the Festivals/Holiday that goes with that month those students have to stand up and place it on the right spot on the board. (Help students stay focus and pay attention)

Craft Element:
Reading/Writing- Have students get into 12 different groups. When they have 12 groups formed tell them to pick a month and the festival/holiday that goes with it. Allow the students to do more research on that topic either using the Internet or other books. After they have gathered enough information, have them write about it, and then have them present the information to their classmates. They can simply talk about it or make a poster board.
Writing- Use this book to compare and contrast Latino culture to the American culture.