Monday, August 16, 2010

A Love of Chicle, A Trip to the Yucatan Jungles

Chavela and the Magic Bubble by Monica Brown illus. Magaly Morales

Chavela is very close to her grandmother, loves chewing gum (chicle) and making big bubbles. She can make bubbles in the shape of animals. One day Chavela chews a magic piece of chicle and flies to the Yucatan jungles.

She meets the chicleros who harvest the sweet fruit from sapodilla trees to make chewing gum. Chavela is welcomed by the children. Chavela goes on a wonderful adventure. There is a very nice unexpected surprise at the end.

Brown's text is beautiful as always. I am pretty sure Brown is blessed with an illustrator fairy. Once again, she is matched up with, an artist whose style is perfect for this story. Morales is not afraid of color (lucky us) The text curves, when word bubbles appear, making it a very visually fun book. You will be wowed. Its beautiful. A great read alound choice. Also a wonderful story for grandmother's to share with grandaughters. In the afterword, Brown includes some facts about chiclero farmers.

"On Saturdays, Chavela and her grandmother would split a piece of gum and go shopping on Market Street. Chavela's abuelita would tell her stories about the quiet town of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where she grew up. One morning Abuelita was telling Chavela about the beautiful rainforest and the bird and the butterflies that lived there, when Chavela blew a big bubble shaped like a butterfly! "Bravo!" said Abuelita. "

4 comments:

Cassy said...

Sounds lovely! This is something I would love to read to my students. Another one for my must-haves list!

Jeannine said...

Sounds yummy. It's on my list too!!

Doret said...

Cassy and Jeannine - You'll both love it. Its very good.

Amanda American Girl said...

sounds like a really good book - thanks for the visit and the comment - I will keep in touch :) tell your daughter that Amanda says hi :) and that she is happy to meet another 7 year old second grader like herself - have a great day