A Piñata in a Pine Tree by Pat Mora

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mora, Pat. 2009. A Piñata in a Pine Tree: A Latino Twelve Days of Christmas. Ill. by Magaly Morales. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618841989
PLOT SUMMARY
   Author Pat Mora re-creates this traditional Christmas song by blending Mexican and American holiday traditions for the daily gifts from a secret amiga. Revealed at the end of story, the secret “amiga” is an especially delightful surprise for the family.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
   This is an engaging, rhythmically appealing version of the traditional folk song. Magaly Morales creates colorful, festive illustrations in vibrant acrylics that add to the excitement and anticipation of the daily gifts. The story features text in both English and Spanish. Non-Spanish speakers will appreciate the Spanish phonetic pronunciations included within the illustrations and glossary at the back of the book.
   My Spanish speaking readers (sons) enjoyed the cheerful illustrations, story, and included music notation although would have preferred the text to be entirely in Spanish without the pronunciations as they found them distracting. Although I do enjoy the insertion of a word or phrase in another language for emphasis sometimes found in dual languages books, I tend to agree with my sons as the strong Spanish rhyme of the gifts seems to overwhelm the initial English phrasing “On the (first, second...) day of Christmas, my amiga gave to…” However, considering the end, maybe the author wanted to stress the “amiga” within that phrasing.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
2010 Américas Commended List
HORN BOOK review – “[A] zippy spin on the ‘twelve days of Christmas.’”
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY review – “A luminous holiday pick, especially for new big brothers and sisters.”
CONNECTIONS
*Students can learn to sing the song.
*Students can brainstorm additional special gifts from their own holiday traditions.
*Another favorite book about the Twelve Days of Christmas:
Knight, Hilary. The Twelve Days of Christmas. ISBN 0689835477