Author: Monica Brown
Illustrator: David Diaz
Publisher and Year: Children’s Book Press, 2015
Number of pages: 32
Tags: K-1, 2-3, Fiction, Diversity, Culture, Family, Amy Sanchez
Analysis: This book is bilingual (English-Spanish). Maya’s grandma stitched her a special blanket, or a manta to use when she was younger. As she grew, her grandma helped Maya make her blanket into a dress. After some time, the dress becomes stained so her grandma makes it into a skirt. When Maya out grows the skirt it is made into a shawl. When that gets worn out, she makes it into a hair ribbon, and finally, a bookmark. Each item her grandma makes her manta into something new, it holds a special meaning. These items help Maya on her adventures or protect her. One day, Maya accidently loses her bookmark. She decides to create a book about her adventures with the manta titled Maya’s Blanket/ La Manta de Maya. When Maya grows up, she shares her book with her daughter that is also snuggled under her own manta.
This book is a take-off on the Yiddish folksong “I had Little Coat.” At the end of the book the author also provides the reader with a glossary for the terms used in Spanish, and explains how this book helps celebrate both her Jewish and Latinx heritage. This book can serve as window to understand some cultural aspects of people. The manta or special blanket was hand stitched by Maya’s grandma. This book did a good job of demonstrating how one special item could play a role in her life throughout the years. Maya’s manta transformed into many objects that allowed the blanket to be a part of her life. This book can also serve as a mirror for kids who have been given or made something that has meaning. In this book, it is the special blanket.. The experience of Maya and her grandmother can illustrate the special bond they had . This book does a good job of showing how Maya celebrates her culture and tries to incorporate the manta in her life as much as she can. This book can also be a door to teach children about different practices or traditions of people.
The ideology this book explores is the idea of refurbishing and recycling. This book starts with a blanket that gets transformed into a dress, skirt, shawl, hair ribbon, and a bookmark. With patience, care, and love Maya’s grandmother finds a way to make the blanket a part of Maya’s life. That blanket is special to Maya because her grandmother stitched it with her own two hands.
The illustrations used in this book use an open frame, so our view is from the outside. The colors used are vibrant colors. They portray very calm and neutral images. The images are adding to the words. The illustrations help capture Maya’s adventures with the manta and her growing up.