Young Rosita competes in Oaxaca, Mexico's radish carving contest which is held every December 23rd. She hopes to win first prize and use the money to help her family's failing farm.
My review:
Rosita and the Night of the Radishes is a fictional tale based off of a real live event in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The character, Rosita, is a young girl who must take care of her family farm while her parents try to sell what farm goods they have raised. They are poor farmers and Rosita enters the competition each year to try to help win money so her parents can hire more help.
The tale tells how she gets to grow the radishes and the carving she does. The ending is such a twist that I was surprised to see what actually happened. Is it a good ending? Bad ending? Ah, my readers, you must get the book to know.
To me, the whole story was a sweet and powerful take on dreaming about being better, persistences, hard work, and courage. I loved seeing the main character being a girl with all of these traits and more.
The illustrations were quite bold and colorful. They enhanced the already good story line and made it come to full life.
At the end of the story, it gave a brief history of the "Night of the Radishes." Again, I was surprised to know that this is a real event that happens every year just before Christmas. The end pages also include real photographs of the event. To me, that was really cool to see and a nice comparison to the fictional story.
This book is targeted for 3-8-year-olds. The younger set would enjoy being read to as the older children would enjoy reading the book. I give this book a 5-star win!
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I was so interested in this annual event because I had never heard it before, that I decided to look up a video. This video is not connected to the author or her book but is an interesting connection to it. Enjoy.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher. The views expressed here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~M.M. Hudson aka Naila Moon
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