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CARLOS AND CONCHITA IN GUATEMALA by Alida Vreeland Kirkus Star

CARLOS AND CONCHITA IN GUATEMALA

By

Publisher: Aladdin

Panamericana, full of exciting episodes, rich Gustemalan regional detail and social appeal- about a little girl Conchita, who lived in the village of Pansjachel and made dolls, and a little boy Carlos, who lived in the village of Chichicastenango and made sandals- and how they met each other at the fiesta of Santiago at Lake Atitlan, became friends and later journeyed to the city of Antigua to study medicine. In their separate towns, Carlos and Conchita prepare for the fiesta. Carlos gains the disapproval of his father by entertaining some be--cameraed Americans, from whom he learns of the first Guatemalan Indian doctor. After the chance meeting and good time with Conchita at the fair- watching the dances of the Conquistadores and the Flying Tree etc.,- he is taken ill with an infected hand for which his father sends him to a witch doctor. Frightened and disbelieving, Carlos runs away across the mountains to Panajachel where he finds Conchita in despair over her betrothal to a dumb Indian boy. Amid the danger of a storm and an avalanche the two children flee to Antigua and find refuge in the Indian doctor's hospital. Nice going. The author's drawings are good- we wish there were more of them.