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HOW NANITA LEARNED TO MAKE FLAN by Campbell Geeslin

HOW NANITA LEARNED TO MAKE FLAN

by Campbell Geeslin

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81546-8
Publisher: Atheneum

In perfect harmony with Geeslin’s story Mathers captures the rose, purple, lemon-yellow, and desert-green of Mexico. Nanita’s father the shoemaker is so busy in their tiny Mexican town that he has no time to make her shoes, even though it will soon be her First Communion. Nanita has watched him work, so one night she makes a wonderful pair of shoes herself out of scraps in bright colors, and falls asleep still wearing them. The shoes have a spirit all their own, so when Nanita awakes she is far away by a house in the desert. The ranchero takes her in, but the old woman takes her shoes and makes Nanita do all the work. The ranchero’s parrot (who sports an eyepatch from his pirate days) befriends Nanita, and they plot their escape, but not until the old woman teaches Nanita how to make flan. Nanita is welcomed with glad cries by her father, and she attends her First Communion in soft slippers that he has made for her. The spirited parrot, a lightning-fast pace, droll illustrations, and a recipe for flan on the endpapers combine for a wondrous piece of bookmaking. With its gestures to other tales and to magic realism, the volume is thoroughly beguiling in both word and image. (Picture book. 3-8)