Prietita and the Ghost Woman / Prietita y la llorona

by Gloria Anzaldúa, Maya Gonzalez (Illustrator)

Overview

Bilingual English/Spanish. Gloria Anzaldúa uniquely reinterprets the famous Mexican legend of la Llorona.

Ever since she can remember, Prietita has heard frightening stories about la Llorona-the legendary ghost woman who steals children at night. One day, when Prietita goes in search of the missing herb that can help cure her mother's illness, she becomes lost in the woods. Suddenly she hears a distant crying sound and sees flashes of white in the trees. Could it be the ghost woman from her grandmother's stories?

In her second book for children, Gloria Anzaldúa reinterprets the famous Mexican legend of la Llorona, the ghost woman. Surrounded by the live oak and prickly pear of the Texas woods, Prietita discovers that la Llorona is not what people expect. In this magical story, Prietita's search for the healing rue plant turns into a powerful journey of self-discovery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892391677
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Edition description:	Bi-Lingual Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	184,473
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.00(d)
Language:	Spanish
Lexile:	AD600L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 10 Years

About the Author

Gloria Anzaldúa was a major Mexican American/Chicana literary voice, scholar, and activist. Her first book for Children's Book Press, Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del otro lado, about a brave young girl's friendship with an immigrant boy and his mother, was praised by School Library Journal as "an important book touching on a timely and sensitive issue." She passed away in 2004.

Maya Gonzalez is an award-winning children’s book artist, author, activist and progressive educator. Their work addresses systemic inequity in relation to race/ethnicity, sexism, and cissexism using children’s books as radical agents of change and healing, both personally and culturally. Gonzalez co-founded Reflection Press, a POC, queer and trans owned independent publishing house that uses holistic, nature-based, and anti-oppression frameworks in their books and materials for kids and grown-ups. They are also the creator of the Gender Wheel, a tool to express the dynamic, infinite and inclusive reality of gender, and provides lectures and workshops to educators, parents and caregivers. Visit them online at mayagonzalez.com.

Editorial Reviews

Américas Award, Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs

From the Publisher

Gr 3-6In this bilingual (English/Spanish) tale, Prietita seeks a remedy for her mother's illness. Doa Lola, the curandera or healer, sends her in search of the rue plant, but Prietita gets lost in the woods. She appeals to the various animals (deer, salamander, dove) that she meets for help, but in vain. Then La Llorona appears and guides the girl to the plant and out of the woods. La Llorona, the "Crying Woman," is traditionally a bogey: frightening, unredeemable, she lures children away from their families and disappears with them. Anzalda's story, though, casts her as a helpful, benign figure. A source note explains the reason for this change. Whether readers can accept this version or not, this tale provides a fascinating context in which to introduce and discuss folktales. The well-written English text includes a number of Spanish terms. Gonzalez's lovely folk paintings, awash in bright colors, authentically portray the people and native plants and animals of this South Texas locale. Prietita was also featured in Anzalda's Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado (Children's Book Pr., 1993).Marilyn Taniguchi, Santa Monica Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

Anzaldúa (Friends from the Other Side, 1993, etc.) offers a feminist interpretation of the familiar Mexican legend of la Llorona, the sobbing ghost woman who steals children at night. Night has already fallen when Prietita, lost in the Texas woods while seeking the plant that will cure her mother, hears a woman crying. In spite of her grandmother's frightening stories about the ghost woman, Prietita forces herself to go to her, and in the process discovers that ghosts—and probably people, too—aren't always what others think. The ghost woman benevolently guides Prietita to the right plant and then out of the woods. The text appears in both Spanish and English; dramatic illustrations with the bold forms of mural art completely fill each spread, laden with southwestern flora and Mexican motifs.

Kirkus Reviews