Maya's Blanket: La manta de Maya

By Monica Brown

Illustrated by David Diaz

•          Age Range: 5 - 9 years
•          Hardcover: 32 pages
•          Publisher: CBP; 1 edition (August 15, 2015)
•          Language: English
•          ISBN-10: 0892392924
•          ISBN-13: 978-0892392926

Little Maya has a special blanket that Grandma stitched with her own two hands. As Maya grows, her blanket becomes worn and frayed, so with Grandma’s help, Maya makes it into a dress. Over time the dress is made into a skirt, a shawl, a scarf, a hair ribbon, and finally, a bookmark. Each item has special, magical, meaning for Maya; it animates her adventures, protects her, or helps her in some way. But when Maya loses her bookmark, she preserves her memories by creating a book about her adventures and love of these items. When Maya grows up, she shares her book―Maya’s Blanket/La manta de Maya―with her own little daughter while snuggled under her own special blanket. Inspired by the traditional Yiddish folk song “Hob Ikh Mir a Mantl” (“I Had a Little Coat”), this delightful bilingual picture book puts a child-focused, Latino spin on the tale of an item that is made into smaller and smaller items. Maya’s Blanket/La manta de Maya charmingly brings to life this celebration creativity, recycling, and enduring family love.

Monica Brown, Ph.D. is the author of many award-winning books for children, including Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People (Henry Holt), winner of the Américas Award for Children's Literature and an Orbis Pictus Honor for Outstanding Nonfiction, and Waiting for the Biblioburro (Random House), a Christopher Award winner. Her picture book Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match/Marisol McDonald no combina (Lee & Low) is the winner of the Tejas Star Book Award, the International Latino Book Award, and a Pura Belpré Honor for Illustration. Marisol McDonald and the Clash Bash/Marisol McDonald y la fiesta sin igual, the second book in the Marisol series, was published in September 2013.

Monica's books are inspired by her Peruvian-American heritage and desire to share Latino/a stories with children. "I write from a place of deep passion, joy, and commitment to producing the highest possible quality of literature for children. In my biographies, the lives of my subjects are so interesting and transformational that I am simply giving them voice for a young audience. I don't think it is ever too early to introduce children to the concepts of magical realism, social justice, and dreaming big!" Monica is in demand as a conference keynote speaker and has appeared at ALA, TLA, NCTE, Book Expo America, and at book festivals across the country.

Monica Brown is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, specializing in U.S. Latino Literature and Multicultural Literature. She writes and publishes scholarly work with a Latino/a focus, including Gang Nation: Delinquent Citizenship in Puerto Rican and Chicano and Chicana Literature; and numerous articles and chapters on Latino/a literature and cultural studies. She was the recipient of the prestigious Rockefeller Fellowship on Chicano Cultural Literacies from the Center for Chicano Studies at the University of California. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Flagstaff, Arizona.