The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El Día Que Nevó Tortillas: Folktales Told in Spanish and English

Gather 'round master storyteller Joe Hayes to hear tales of wisdom, magic, trickery, and more, from old New Mexican folklore. Side-by-side English and Spanish text.

The tales in this collection have been shared for over four hundred years--since the Spanish reached New Mexico. In the hands of witty Joe Hayes, it's especially easy to see the magic that has kept these stories alive generation after generation. In the title story, a very clever woman saves her silly husband from a band of robbers--by making the old man believe it snowed tortillas during the night! The enchantment continues in story after story--a clever thief tricks a king for his kingdom and a prince finds his beloved in a house full of wicked step-sisters. And of course, we listen to the ancient tale of the weeping woman, La Llorona, who still searches for her drowned children along the riverbanks.

Each tale is further brought to life by an illustration from award winning artist, Antonio Castro Lopez. A helpful afterword also adds helpful and interesting historical notes for each story.

Los cuentos de esta colección han sido compartidos durante más de cuatrocientos años, desde que los españoles llegaron a Nuevo México. En manos del ingenioso Joe Hayes, es especialmente fácil ver la magia que ha mantenido vivas estas historias generación tras generación. En la historia principal, una mujer muy inteligente salva a su marido despistado de una banda de ladrones, al hacerle creer al anciano que nevaron tortillas durante la noche! El encantamiento continúa historia tras historia: un astuto ladrón engaña a un rey para quedarse con su reino y un príncipe encuentra a su amada en una casa llena de malvadas hermanastras. Y por supuesto, escuchamos el antiguo cuento de La Llorona que aún busca a sus hijos ahogados por las orillas del río.

Cada cuento toma vida aún más claramente con una ilustración del galardonado artista Antonio Castro López. Un útil epílogo también agrega notas históricas útiles e interesantes para cada historia.

Joe Hayes is one of America's premier storytellers. He grew up in a small town in southern Arizona where he started learning Spanish from his classmates. As Hayes got older, he began reading the work of folklorists and anthropologists and gathering the old stories from the Southwest region. His books have received the Arizona Young Readers Award, two Land of Enchantment Children's Book Awards, the Texas Bluebonnet award, and the National Storytelling Network Talking Leaves Award. He lives in New Mexico.

Antonio Castro L. was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and has lived in the Juarez-El Paso area for most of his life. He was awarded a prestigious Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Honor for his illustrations in My Tata's Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata. He has also illustrated several other picture books for Cinco Puntos Press, including The Gum Chewing Rattler and My Pet Rattlesnake.