Call Me Ixchel: Mayan Goddess of the Moon

by Janie Havemeyer

Overview

Ixchel, Mayan Goddess of the Moon, is a spunky young goddess throwing lightning bolts with her friends until she meets and falls in love with the God of the Sun. Their tempestuous relationship leads to many colorful adventures, including an elopement across the Milky Way, a visit to the underworld, and a sojourn with the Vulture King. But can the sun and the moon stay together? Are they two halves of a whole, or a world apart? Does the rambunctious young goddess finally grow up — and where can you find her now? Told by Ixchel in the first person, this lively book gives young readers a unique entry into the world of Mayan mythology, and provides interesting cultural and historical context in a nonfiction section illustrated with maps and photographs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937463960
Publisher:	Goosebottom Books
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Series:	Treasury of Glorious Goddesses Series
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 13 Years

About the Author

Janie Havemeyer has worked as a museum educator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, an elementary school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a social studies curriculum designer. For the past six years, she has been working as a literacy tutor. She writes narrative, nonfiction picture books for children, and is busy thinking about the next eccentric character whose story she wants to tell. The author of Catherine de’ Medici “The Black Queen,” and Njinga "The Warrior Queen," she lives in San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

2014-07-29
Think that having "god friends" would be supercool? Think that the key to success is skill with hairdos or marrying a cute sun god? Ixchel, a self-described "gorgeous Mayan goddess," lives with her grandfather in the Upperworld but yearns to marry the jealous K'inich Ajaw. The two run off in secret, but Ixchel is killed by a lightning bolt and spends time in the Mayan underworld, Xibalba, before being rescued by her husband. The book concludes with several pages of nonfiction material about the ancient Mayans, a chart that parses myth from fact from fiction, and a bibliography. Despite these and the disclaimer that mythology is meant to be reinvented, this comes across as a transparent attempt to appeal to girls who can only relate to superficial, silly stories and who might not otherwise take their learning seriously. The thin, first-person story is silly and reads like cartoon dialogue. It's hard to know who the intended audience might be for this peculiar mixture of ancient and contemporary culture, as in contrast to such new standards as the Percy Jackson books, this comes across as disrespectful of both the actual mythology and modern girls. Ixchel's nonfiction-ish wrap-up of modern Central America sums it up: "If there was a magazine of ‘pop' goddesses in Mesoamerica, I'm sure I would be on the cover." A miss. (cast of characters, glossary, photographs) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews