96 pages, 8 x 8 inches,
11 illustrations, Spanish and English text, bilingual vocabulary list, ages 10 and up
ISBN 1-893271-38-2
A bilingual children’s book that doubles as a textbook for learning Spanish, The Enchanted Lizard/La Lagartijita Mágica is set in the noted pottery-making village of Mata Ortiz, in the Chihuahuan desert of northern Mexico.
The story is told by Aubrey Smith Carter, a lecturer who has traveled extensively in Mexico and Latin America and who taught Spanish for more than twenty years at Milton Academy in Massachusetts. She has written two Spanish readers, Mayan Safari and Inca Safari.
The text is presented first in English, then in Spanish. Then comes an eight-page bilingual vocabulary, of special help to those readers beginning to learn Spanish—or English. Included are distinctive illustrations by San Antonio print maker Molly Branton.
In the story, villagers live happily in the sunlight and sleep peacefully under the moon, though mischievous spirits fly through the streets and enter the dreams of children. A pet lizard named Lila protects Marina from evil spirits, and warns her when they come near. Lila is especially helpful when Marina and Enrique secretly set out to make a pot to enter in a major competition, and Beto, a boy from a neighboring village, sets out to thwart them.
Editor of the text was Esther Whitt Nelson, who has a Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. She is newly retired after teaching Spanish for twenty-five years at the University of Southern California and at California State University, Northridge.
Maverick Publishing Company
P. O. Box 6355, San Antonio, Texas 78209
210-828-5777, FAX 210-828-7874
email info@maverickpub.com
Copyright 2006 Maverick Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved.
