Review by Ariadna Sánchez
The Bogeyman is one of the most iconic figures in the Latin culture. In addition, La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) and El Chupacabras are folkloric characters that seduce old and new generations into a mysterious and magical world. The legends, myths, and folk stories about these unique figures gave birth to a legacy that will last forever in Mexico’s villages and cities as well as the rest of Latin America.
¡El Cucuy! A Bogeyman Cuento in English and Spanish as told by Joe Hayes and phenomenally illustrated by Honorio Robledo is a must read during the summer break.
In Oaxaca, México El Cucuy is best known as el Coco. Hayes description of El Cucuy matches the one my abuelita used to tell me “a gigantic old man with a humped back and a large, red left ear that can hear everything. And he comes to town for lazy and disobedient girls and boys.”
The tale gives young readers a bittersweet experience as the two girls are carried by El Cucuy towards the mountain. The two sisters are afraid and sorry for their behavior with their father and younger sister. One day, a boy losses one of his goats. The goat starts to bleat louder and louder right above El Cucuy’s cave. The girls plea the boy for help. He takes his jacket and uses it as a rope to rescue the girls. The girls climb up. Once free and safe the three children walk to the valley. At last, the girls reunite with their father and sister. Since that day, the two sisters are the most helpful and polite girls in town. The good news is that El Cucuy never appears again.
Joe Hayes adds at the end of the book a special note to readers and storytellers about ¡El Cucuy! Visit your local library for more amazing stories. Reading gives you wings. Hasta Pronto
Joe Hayes Narrates El Cucuy! - YouTube
Ghost Fever/Mal de Fantasma by Joe Hayes, 2004
Ghost Fever won the Texas Bluebonnet Award for 2007, joining previous Bluebonnet ghost stories winners. including The Ghost of Fossil Glen in 2000, Time For Andrew: A Ghost Story in 1996, Wait 'Til Helen Comes in 1989 and Christina's Ghost in 1988.
Joe Hayes is a professional storyteller known for his Southwestern stories. This 87 page book is the kind of chapter book I love because young readers, still gaining fluency, can move through the story quickly and feel successful that they have mastered "a chapter book." It certainly qualifies as the kind of "scary" book young readers seek.
Cole Cash rents houses in Duston, Arizona on the wrong side of the tracks. No matter what he does though, he cannot rent one abandoned house to anyone. In desperation he offers 6 months free rent to whoever will sign a one year lease. Rumors of ghosts keep the house empty until Elena’s father hears about it. Newly unemployed with two young daughters, Frank Padilla decides to move his family in despite warnings and advice from family and friends. Luckily, Abuelita knows a thing or two about the spirit world so she takes fourteen year old Elena aside to warn her about ghosts.
She instructs Elena on how to talk to a spirit and warns her that she may be the only one who can hear or see it. Mona Pennypacker did the soft pencil illustrations which nicely evoke the apparition on pages 43 and the very creepy on page 63. I know these 2 pictures elicited the “oooooohs” when I introduced the Bluebonnet list last fall.
I look forward to hearing Hayes speak at the TLA Convention in April.
The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El Dia Que Nevaron Tortillas, Folktales told in Spanish and English
Author: Joe Hayes
Illustrator: Antonio Castro Lopez
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
ISBN-10: 0938317768
ISBN-13: 978-0938317760
The Day It Snowed Tortillas is a fantastic little collection of stories re-told by Joe Hayes. In the title story, a clever woman saves her husband from a bunch of bandits by making him believe that it snowed tortillas during the night. There are fun stories, scary ones and magical ones. I loved them all, but my favorite story was the one called Little Gold Star. Little Gold Star is a kind of Cinderella story about a kind little girl named Arcia and has two nasty, ill-behaved stepsisters. Arcia is follows the instructions of a hawk and gets a gold star on her forehead as a reward. Her sisters, being the rude girls that they are get a donkey ear and a green horn on their foreheads. The story made me laugh and laugh. Imagine being called oreja de burro! Too funny.
There’s a story of La Llorona in the book too. I love stories about La Llorona or the Weeping Woman and love to see other versions of the story.
Each story in the collection are adaptations of folktales from the New Mexico region. Joe Hayes puts his own unique spin on them and gives them a refreshing new feel. The Day It Snowed Tortillas is a unique and fun must have for any library.
About the Author:
Joe Hayes is one of America's premier storytellers. He is especially recognized for his bilingual telling of stories from the Hispanic culture of northern New Mexico. Joe lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and travels extensively throughout the United States, visiting schools and storytelling festivals.
