Book Description
for In My Family by Carmen Lomas Garza
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Brilliantly colored oil, acrylic and gouache paintings illustrate scenes from this Chicana artist's childhood in Kingsville, Texas, near the border with Mexico. She comments on growing up in her Mexican-American family in single-page narratives accompanying each work of art reproduced in the book and in the details of her paintings, as well. Children who cannot read yet can see empanadas being made, a birthday celebration complete with a barbecue and a piñata, Easter egg decoration, a healer's visit to the family, grandmother telling the story of La Llorona, a cousin's wedding blessing, and much more. The artist answers questions typically asked about her work in two pages at the end. The narrative passages are printed in Spanish and in English. A welcome continuation of her first book, Family Pictures = Cuadros de familia, published in 1990. (Age 5 and older)
CCBC Choices 1996. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1996. Used with permission.