This book is short, sweet, and to the point. It tells a very quick story about a grandmother telling her granddaughters a religious story. It is about a poor man who is walking, and he meets The Lady of Guadalupe. She is kind to him and beautiful. She wants him to convince the pope to build a church in her name. The plot line is of him attempting to do just that.
This book is a very easy read, but it is basic. There are very little well done elements of imagery, similes, metaphors, or anything of the sort. It is a short story that tells what happened to this man. It is interesting, still, because it talks about a culture that I am unfamiliar with. I enjoyed reading about a different religion, however it is bland. I always look for a sparkle of some sort and this book was very to the point. ( )

The story of the apparition and miracles of the "Virgin of Guadalupe" is held dear by Roman Catholics, especially those from Latin America. Although this story is not part of our Orthodox Christian history and, therefore, cannot as a community say for certain that this story is genuine, it nevertheless shares much in common with apparitions of the Theotokos among Orthodox Christians. Although the Roman Catholic Pontiff separated himself and his people from the Orthodox Churches, we cannot say that the Holy Spirit is not at work among Roman Catholics. American Orthodox Christians would do well to familiarize themselves with the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe and its claims to authenticity. Surely, the conversions from paganism to Roman Catholicism have brought many closer to the Orthodox Church. Only God can see the future and the big picture of how such an event as the alleged apparition to Juan Diego may lead people toward Orthodox faith or away from it. The story in and of itself, however, contains nothing contrary to the Holy Orthodox Faith. ( )

catholic, Catholicism, mexico,

I really enjoyed this book! I read this book as part of our multicultural text set, which was great because otherwise I don’t think I would’ve noticed it! This story tells the folktale of a beautiful lady who appears to a man named Juan Diego on a hill and asks him to get permission to build a special church for her. In the story, the bishop continually asks Juan Diego for signs from the lady and then the request will be granted. My favorite part about this story was the folk tale aspect of it. I’m not familiar with Hispanic and Latino folktales, so I really enjoyed learning a story from a new culture. I also loved the illustrations. The illustrations were water colored and did a phenomenal job capturing the story. Finally, I loved the integration of Spanish into the story. The book was primarily written in English, but would include Spanish phrases such as ‘rosas hermosas’ throughout the story, which helped add the multicultural dimension to the story.
I would recommend this story for elementary school students grades K-2. It’s an overall easy read and a great story for kids. It also has a great overall message, which aims to teach readers about a Hispanic custom that stems from this folktale. ( )

Lovely, simple version of the story of Juan Diego and his vision of the Virgin Mary in Mexico in 1531. Framing the narrative with the grandmother telling the story seems superfluous. ( )