Count me in!

Review by Ariadna Sánchez

The southern Mexican state of Oaxaca celebrates the Guelaguetza every July. Guelaguetza means sharing. This festivity brings together the splendor of the eight regions of Oaxaca through dances, music, food, and art.

Count me in! is written by Cynthia Weill and complemented by the talented Aguilar Sisters. Count me in! is a colorful and artistic counting book with the unique and finest  ceramic figurines made by the gifted Aguilar sisters.Count me in! offers an unforgettable bilingual experience while learning numbers one through ten along the músicos, pretty danzantes and joyful niñas y niños as each page shows the traditional calenda before the Guelaguetza begins. Una marmota, an enormous white balloon held by a wooden stick, leads the parade with la banda de musica playing. Dos cueteros come along to throw firecrackers into the air. Tres músicos follow the cueteros. Cuatro monos or giants puppets bring happiness to the parade. The world-known art by Guillermina, Josefina, Irene and Concepción Aguilar will show Oaxaca’s beauty as you count from one to ten. Visit the nearest library to read this amazing book. Reading gives you wings!

The Aguilar sisters are Mexico’s most beloved artisans. They learned how to make clay figurines from their mother Isaura Álcantara Diaz. These lively independent women are considered great masters of Mexican folk art and have been presented to Queen Elizabeth, Queen Sofia of Spain, various Mexican presidents and Nelson Rockefeller. Their humorous ceramics of the people of their town and state are in museum collections worldwide.

The collection of parade figures from Count Me In was acquired by the Field Museum in Chicago for its permanent collection.                                               

Source: http://cincopuntospress.blogspot.com/2012/08/count-me-in-by-cynthia-weill.html

*For more about Aguilar Sisters of Oaxaca, check the following links:

http://www.zanzibartribalart.com/JosefinaAguilar.htm

http://www.mexicoartshow.com/aguilar.html

http://www.pinterest.com/calstott/oaxacas-aguilar-sisters/

COUNT ME IN A Parade of Mexican Folk Art Numbers in English and Spanish

By Cynthia Weill

Illustrated by The Aguilar Sisters

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press (October 16, 2012)

10-digit ISBN1-935955-39-X
13-digit ISBN978-1-935955-39-9

Practice your numbers in English and Spanish when you count the beautiful dancers, playful musicians, and happy children of Oaxaca as the Guelaguetza parade goes by! Pronounced Gal-a-get-zah, the lively celebration—full of traditional dancing and music—takes place every July deep in the heart of southern Mexico. ONE band leader with a big white balloon! DOS hombres with firecrackers! THREE musicians! FOUR giants! All exquisitely handcrafted by the Mexican folk art masters Guillermina, Josefina, Irene, and Concepción Aguilar, in collaboration with author and scholar Cynthia Weill. ¡Bienvenidos! Welcome to the parade!


Cynthia Weill is a professor and mentor to teachers at Columbia University's Teachers College. She also owns a non-profit—Aid to Women Artisans—that promotes the craftwork of artisans from developing countries. Count Me In is her fourth book in the First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art Series.

The Aguilar Sisters are Mexico's most beloved artisans. They learned how to make clay figurines from their mother Doña Isaura. These lively independent women are considered great masters of Mexican folk art and have been visited by Queen Elizabeth, Queen Sofia of Spain, various Mexican presidents, and Nelson Rockefeller. Their humorous ceramics of the people of their town and state are in museum collections the world over.

 

Other books in the series 

Little kids love colors, they love animals, and they love the sounds of words. Especially new words. Colores de la Vida—the third in the highly successful series First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art—combines all these elements to teach early learners about color. Leggy red giraffes, pink cows, purple rabbits—the Oaxacan folk artists who contributed to this book unleashed their imaginations and went wild with color. Young children will delight in the bright colors of the Oaxacan rainbow while folk art collectors will marvel at the whimsical handcrafts.

But the simplicity of a book like Colores de la Vida belies the years of research and thoughtful intercultural communication with third-world artists done by Cynthia Weill. As an art historian, she has always been interested in the crafts of developing nations. Weill's intention with Colores de la Vida—and its predecessors in the series, ABeCedarios and Opuestos—has been to find an educational purpose for the work of Oaxacan artisans. She hopes to open up a larger, more international market for their craft.

Cynthia Weill’s book of Mexican folk art teaches kids about opposites in Spanish and English! These whimsical little animals from Oaxaca, carved and painted by hand, make learning about opposites fun. Up and down, tall and short, left and right—all inside a beautiful book.

Delicate hand-painted animals from Oaxaca lead little ones through a bilingual alphabet.

Every ABC book worth its cover price is bound to have bright colors and big letters. But not every ABC book has magical hand-carved animals to illustrate every letter. And very few alphabet books present those letters in more varieties than English! Very few alphabet books except the ABeCedarios, that is! In this brightly colored book, the alphabet is presented in both Spanish and English, and includes the four additional letters—and whimsical animals—that make the Spanish alphabet so much fun.