HURRAY FOR THREE KINGS' DAY!

PLB 0-688-16240-1 A thin story cloaks a list of the customs and foods associated with the sixth of January, known variously as Epiphany, Twelfth Night, or, for the Spanish-speaking family in this book, Three Kings’ Day. Carlson (Barrio Streets Carnival Dreams, 1996, etc.) has combined features of the celebrations from various Latino communities, incorporating them into the family festivities of young Anita, who tells the story. The festivities begin the night of the fifth of January with street processions featuring the wise men who followed the star to Christ’s birthplace. That night Anita walks to visit friends and family with her older brothers, who keep hurrying her and telling her she is a baby. “Is this where we can find the child?” the children sing at various houses, and those they visit send them on until the boys have had enough and decide to go home. There Anita does as custom decrees, placing her empty shoes by her bed to be filled with small gifts and candies, along with small boxes full of grass, flowers, and hay. The next morning Anita is elated to see heaps of gifts under the decorated tree downstairs, and that evening when the family gathers for a holiday meal, she finds in her piece of cake the traditional tiny doll making its finder the king, or rey, or in her case, the reina. Oil paintings lend a rich glow to an orderly but warm bilingual story. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-8.)