Horn Book Review
When a child plants seeds he finds, a lush forest and a huge 'calabaza', a pumpkin, grow. Two greedy men smash the brilliant gourd and out pours the sea, covering everything except the magical forest planted by the innocent child. Called 'Boriquén' by the Taino, Puerto Rico is the setting for this creation myth illustrated with paintings that use abstract geometric shapes and warm colors. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Subtitled ``A Taino Myth From Puerto Rico,'' this is the legend of how water came to the world. Puerto Rico, according to its earliest inhabitants, was once a mountain in the middle of a vast dry plain. A child receives magic seeds that grow into a lush green forest on the mountaintop. In that forest, a vine produces a beautiful golden flower, and from the flower springs a great golden pumpkin. Two men fight over the pumpkin, and in their struggle they drop it. It rolls down the mountainside, bursts open on a rock, and out springs the sea, flooding the plain and making Puerto Rico the island it is today. Jaffe prefaces the story with an introduction to Taino storytelling tradition, then uses an afterword to provide more background information on these first people, including their fate at the hands of Columbus. The story is told in a simple, lyrical style that will quickly involve young listeners in the myth. Sánchez's illustrations, done in acrylic and gouache, are alive with swirling color; his human figures, squat and thick, in keeping with the style of pre-Columbian art, have the round-eyed wonder and build of Roy Gerrard's many characters. A welcome addition to the folklore shelves. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)