November is Picture Book Month! Mama's Blanket/ La Manta de Maya by Monica Brown

November is Picture Book Month! To honor it, I will read one a day and try to review it. We'll start off with:

Mama's Blanket/ La Manta de Maya by Monica Brown. Illustrated by David Diaz. 32 p. Children's Book Press/ Lee & Low, August, 2015, 9780892396. (Won)

Oh how I adored Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman (Scholastic, 1993). It was also a favorite of my sons. This version is just as endearing featuring a bilingual text on the recto side with Spanish words embedded in the English side. 

Maya's grandmother makes her a lovely blanket embroidered with blue butterflies but when it gets frayed, Abuelita helps her make it into a dress, then a skirt, followed by a shawl, a scarf, a bookmark and finally a hair tie. When that is lost, Maya creates a story.

Exuberantly illustrated by David Diaz, this book is a treasure from end-page to end-page. The colors are rich and the cast of characters are diverse. This would be an amazing addition to any school or Spanish classroom library.