MATEO OF MEXICO

by Ella Huff Kepple ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1958

This makes no pretense of evading the issue of spiritual values. The author, a missionary and a kindergartner in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, has used with success the story pattern for teaching a lesson and conveying an idea. Her own children have had to move often enough to share the disillusionments of small Mateo, who at eight, the eldest of six Perez children, lives-when the story opens-in an adobe farmhouse. When the family go to the village to a celebration, a big rain comes and washes their home away. They move to the city; the parents find work; the children become happy members of an Evangelical school. But Mateo still grieves over the loss in the flood of his talking bird, Beebe. After many adventures Mateo does find Beebe, and the entire family agree that now everything is perfect. The story is told in a gay and simple manner, but the author makes her Mexican background secondary to her preoccupation with the Evangelical work, and the line drawings by Elton Fax fail completely to capture the vividness which seems to us essential in a children's book on Mexico.

Pub Date: May 1, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Friendship Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1958

Categories: CHILDREN'S