Story by: Lynda Bulla
Illustrated by: Maggui Ledbetter
Published by: Oak Tree Press
Available from Amazon.com
ISBN: 978-1-61009-218-0
32 color pages, soft cover or hard cover, 32 pages
By Michael Leppert
This charming folk wisdom storybook by Lynda Bulla provides a light-hearted but touching story of a matriarch’s family heirloom blanket that becomes the object of a fable and provides a healing tool for the three generations who come after her.
Grandmother came to the U.S. from Mexico as a young orphan girl. Eventually, she returned to Mexico to see her many brothers, sisters and other extended family. Her older sister, Great Aunt Juanita, was a skilled and popular weaver in her town and make clothes and blankets for all of the people there.
Grandmother tells her granddaughter the story of the blanket: How her mother used it to warm her legs as she sat knitting for the family. How when the children were sick as babies, the her mother wrapped each one in the blanket until s/he was better and now grandmother wraps granddaughter, Liv, in the blanket when the girl feels sick. The blanket is filled with love from all of the people who have benefited from it and Great Aunt Juanita had called it the Blanket of Miracles, because the love in it becomes stronger with time and wear.
One of the most significant aspects of The Blanket of Miracles is that it is in English and Spanish, with the pages on the left in English, pages on the right, in Spanish, allowing parents to teach their children a goodly amount of Spanish vocabulary and syntax, as they read the enjoyable story.
If your family enjoys reading aloud every night and you want an enjoyable storybook that serves double-duty in elementary Spanish, get The Blanket of Miracles from Amazon and wear the pages out! MjL
