RATTLING CHAINS/CADENAS RUIDOSAS

New Mexico is the “Land of Enchantment,” as even the state’s license plates proclaim, and García wrote these tales to share the enchantment of stories he heard as a boy growing up in the Rio Puerco Valley in rural New Mexico. Narrated by young Junie López, these are tales of hidden saints, witchy owls, Bogeymen, buried treasure and a witch with rattling chains. The hoped-for enchantment of this bilingual collection is lost in wordy and sometimes awkward prose, however, with Mora’s full-page black-and-white illustrations—sometimes oddly placed sideways on the page—adding little. The stories are followed by questions for teachers to ask students, but the questions are low level, asking for mere recitation of facts from the stories, lending a pedantic tone to the volume. Clearly a work of personal importance to the author, the collection is most likely to appeal to students and adults interested in American folklore. (preface, glossary) (Short stories. 8-12)