Mexico Books

I was really impressed with this cookbook because it is so much more than a cookbook. It has history, culture, food background, and much, much more. In face, it is only part cookbook. I have been fascinated with all that I learned about Santa Fe. I originally bought the book because of a research paper I was doing on Santa Fe, but then I fell in love with the book itself.

There are really some colorful pictures of the foods as well as the city itself.

As far as the recipes, they are easy to follow. It would be easy to cook with these recipes.

Having read and tried recipes from several NM/Santa Fe cookbooks, I feel this one is the one to get. This is the authentic stuff. Although a Californian, I'm a NM visitor and southwest food enthusiast. I grow chiles, mail order what I can't grow properly, make my own tortillas, take this stuff seriously.

The recipes for Carne Adovada, Green Chile Stew,Chicken Enchilada filling, Piquin Chile Salsa are totally great and, if you have the ingredients, very simple. The Carne Adovada recipe, while non-traditional, is off the dial. If you've visited Santa Fe and want to re-live the essence of this earthy, elemental cuisine, get this book.

Directions are simple and direct, pictures are beautiful, local ingredients info and historical background is great. First rate.

Food in Santa Fe is a major part of the style and ambiance of the city. New Mexican regional products, especially chilis and corn, and southwestern cooking styles, everything from barbeque to Tex-Mex to authentic regional Mexican and Indian cooking, are strong influences. But Santa Fe has everything from tiny cantinas with home style New Mexican cooking to 5 star restaurants where New Mexico is an influence, but suave professionalism, integration of tastes, and high presentation is the norm.

The Food of Santa Fe takes you there, telling you about the food, the style, and the best restaurants. We've been to Santa Fe many times and reading the book is like taking a brief (and teasing) visit. I have to head for the kitchen and check out the chili supply. It's also a good way to prepare for a trip -- briefing you on what to expect, what to look for, and where to find the very best examples.

There are many Santa Fe cookbooks -- those from Mark Miller and the Coyote Cafe being the best known -- but this is perhaps a better overview, and a very pretty book to read.

We expect to buy copies for our Santa Fe loving friends as Christmas gifts.

Man! This is a GOOD cookbook. I have many many good cookbooks and this one is just to die for. The recipes are gorgeous to look at and even better to eat. One word of caution, if you are not an experienced home chef and a fairly adventerous eater, tread cautiously. These are restaurant-level creative funky recipes with lots of unusual ingredients. If this is just your speed (as it is mine) then go for it!

Dave and Nancy are gods in the hot and spicy food business. As usual you can expect concise information along with mouth-watering recipes. As host of the television series "The Sonoran Grill" and author of 4 cookbooks, I know good food writing when I see it and this is as good as southwest cooking gets. Just click on "All Books" by either Dave or Nancy and you'll see why they are so qualified to write this important cookbook and why I must add a copy of it to my collection

From Planeta Journal - The Handbook looks better than ever. This new edition of the Mexico and Central America guide provides reliable information about general tourism as well profiles of national parks and reserves. Explore the ruins of Copan in Honduras, Oaxaca's beaches or Belize's cayes. This is a terrific guide. The format is easy to follow. Colorful pictures and maps compliment the text. Highly recommended.

I used the handbook for a 6 month motorcycle trip along the transamerican highway (from Canada to Peru) and it has proven to be very accurate and reliable. Its like a bible for tourists.

Our company, AmeriSpan, sends thousands of people to Latin America every year. This is the book that we use AND recommend to our clients. It is updated annually and is simply the best. -John Slocum, President of AmeriSpan

i traveled through mexico to costa rica with this book over a period of three years (1992 edition). stayed in every type of living arrangement, travelled by nearly every type of transport, and it had the info that i needed to make it. one book for 7 countries you can't beat it. just got the updated edition for my next trip.

I'm a big fan of the Handbook series; I began using the Latin America Handbook in 1972, have used it over many years, and have used any of the rest of the series that I could find, whenever and wherever I have found them. I used the 1996 edition for Mexico and Cuba, and it confirmed my opinion that there is no better guidebook available for Latin America. I'm headed for Central America in a few days, and unfortunately haven't been able to get a copy in time, so I've had to get another - O.K., but I will miss the thorough coverage of the Mexico and Central American Handbook. It's good for places to stay at all levels, for services, for transportation, and gives good general information such as history, current situations, and most importantly, is updated every year.

Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot is now available as an e-book for Amazon's neat new Kindle reader. The downside: no photos, glossary, or chapter notes. The upside: the e-book is less than one-fifth the cost of the hardcover edition. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

This book is nothing short of captivating. The author provides brief explanatory narratives to connect entries from Edwards' diaries, beginning with flight training, then combat in North Africa, and the early post-war years in America.

Just ferrying his airplane from the States to North Africa was a big adventure, considering the rather primitive nature of navigation aids and weather forecasts in that era.

Combat in Africa and Italy is described in detail, some of it surprising. For example, a military advance had a down side. Moving forward to a newly captured air field meant that the American aviators were subjected to more ground attacks by German aircraft.

The second half of the book covers the early post-war years, when American factories were building new airplanes almost faster than the Air Force could flight test them. Many exotic, one-of-a-kind vehicles are described here.

To some extent, the reader has a sense of foreboding at this point, knowing that this story is destined to end as unhappily as the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Yet this knowledge serves to accentuate the daily events described here.

There are many memorable tidbits in this book, such as tales of a man who actually intimidated Chuck Yeager!

Glen Edwards is portrayed in these pages as so heroic, embodying so many virtues, yet so modest and unassuming. This is someone you would want to know and to spend time with. Through this book, you can.

"The amount of reseach Ford wove into Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot" is remarkable. The result is a wonderfully readable tale of one man's contribution to freedom and flight. Nice to 'know" such a man as Edwards and to have Ford, a historian/author who brought him back to life."

I can't put this book on Glen Edwards down! God, I hope he makes it thru North Africa because I think I've fallen in love with him. What a can-do kinda guy. So positive -- capturing the essence of each place so well.

This book makes him live again.

A superb book about Glen Edwards. I thoroughly enjoyed and empathized with his career. The pace was like reading a literary version of Ravel's "Bolero" with the crescendo building to the final flight. The description of the crash was wrenching, superb.

A pilot's read! Bravo Zulu!

Paul M. (USN Ret.)

This is a concisely written book of recipes that you'll never have thought of, but wonder why you didn't once you've tried them. Every recipe I've made so far has been delicious.

Actually I was expecting a lot more from this book, but it is a good enough book. I have been cooking for 20+ years now and making my own tortillas for 10 (my grandmother taught me). By the way, I am a native of México. So far, GrandMa's recipe is the best and gives better results than the master recipe in this book. But, still, I have to hand it to Ms. Howarth, that her innovative add -ons yield very nice new flavors to an old recipe.
It is probably worth more by the recipes for the fillings that are very interesting, with very simple instructions to make a tortilla happy.

Karen Howarth's Gourmet Tortillas is a cross-cultural cookbook combining both exotic and traditional Mexican tortilla dishes with delicacies from around the world. From Lavender Tortillas with Garlic Chives, Sun-Dried Tomato Tortillas, and Chilled Asparagus on a Tortilla with Savory Raspberry Sauce, to Tortilla Stuffed Chile Peppers with Cashews & Avocado, Chipotle Chile Taco with Corn, and Tortilla Poor Boy Sandwich, Gourmet Tortillas is a unique and very welcome addition to the family cookbook shelf.

This is a great cookbook! I loved the way the author helped me create delicious bread. The book uses tortillas as a creative bread to be used within any cuisine and within any culture. Hats off to the author, I loved it.

Gourmet Tortillas provides recipes for exotic and traditional tortilla dishes, opening with a set of unusual tortillas recipes for making different tortillas at home - from oatmeal to cream cheese - and then pairing these tortillas with fillings. The result is a fine gathering of dishes which require some preparation but produce unusual end results. No photos.

One of the major materpieces of American historical writing. The two volumes are a continuing delight, far better than any historical novel. Scene succeds scene, filled with movement, passion and unbelievable heroism. Won the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes for History, and is considered the greatest history of the Rio Grande from pre-Columbian time to mid 20th century.

To read a book numbering 945 pages of fine print is a luxury these days. It took me such a long time to read the Fourth Edition of Paul Horgan's wonderful, Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Great River: The Rio Grande In North American History" that sometimes I felt as if I were experiencing 10,000 years worth of history in real time. At the tail end of the epic, when President Wilson hesitates to send troops across the river to pursue bandits, citing his personal shame regarding the United States' "invasion" of Mexico during the Nineteenth Century, I felt able to "remember how it actually happened" - how U.S. fear concerning France's courtship of then independent Texas coupled with its distaste for Mexico's ethical transgressions (e.g., mistreatment of Texan prisoners of war) made U.S. annexation of Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico seem almost righteous.

The Preface to the Fourth Edition is dated 1984. But the book, initially authored in the Forties, reflects the philosophies of its times. Written well before the feminist era, the book, whether dealing with Pueblo peoples, Spanish Conquistadors, Mexican revolutionaries, or American generals, mostly follows the pursuits of men and ignores women. In Pueblo times, one glimpses Pueblo women washing garments in the river. Centuries later, several pages focus on Maud Wright, an American frontierswomen who must have been ferociously brave to have endured unspeakable horrors at the hands of bandits yet survived to provide U.S. troops with knowledge that was "valuable to know." And yet, passive adjectives describe her - "helpless" or "thankful to be busy" - before the narrative again turns its attention to colorful male warriors, raiders, politicians, navigators, or thieves.

Similarly, the book displays a Forties-style awe of "machine technics." Technology, it explains, had a positive effect on river cultures, liquidating "all indigenous aspects of the river's three [Indian, Spanish, Mexican] societies." Half-a-century later, it seems a day doesn't pass when "you Rio" isn't in the news, whether sporting a new, angry-looking border fence (to hold back hordes, who wish to ford the river and flee a still troubled Mexico) or failing to reach the Gulf thanks to global warming. Alas, technology, as Henry Adams feared, is proving to be the river's enemy.

One can't reverse the course of a river, but one can reverse the course of policies made in the heat of whatever political moment. This book should be required reading on both sides of the border.

The level of detail amassed by Horgan for this book is nothing short of incredible. Roughly half the book is dedicated to historical events; the other half covers culture, the role of religion, native living conditions, and a hundred other nuances of day-to-day living by peoples (both native and the later Spanish/American cultures) along the Rio Grande.

Readers who want a VERY in-depth history of the Rio Grande can't do any better than this book. However, readers looking for a more general overview of events might want to consider other sources.

I probably fell into the latter category; I found myself skipping 2-5 pages at a time because I just wasn't that interested in knowing every single detail of (for example) how the Indians dressed and meticulously prepared bits of food for a ceremony to welcome the growing season. Or details covering 5 pages of how Spanish missionaries held a typical mass in the settlements in 1650.

That said, I recognize that this book is about as complete a works as could be published. I'd much rather skip over detail than have an account which isn't thorough.

This book is the best ever written on the history of the southwest along the Rio Grande. Horgan manages to capture the shared history of New Mexico, Texas and Mexico as no other historian/writer has ever done. This one will be around as long as readers want to understand history in the borderlands.

This two-volume series was my inroduction to Paul Horgan who became one of my favorite authors. It is interesting to note he and Frank Waters ('the Man who Killed the Deer') died recently just two weeks apart. They were both 92, and among the greatest authors who dealt with the Rio Grande. Mr. Hogan's dedication to detail set him apart from Willa Cather whose fame rests upon her book 'Death comes to the Archbishop,' using Lamy as her subject. She rejected the aproach of Paul Horgan who at the time was writing his own history, 'Lamy of Santa Fe.' Willa Cather was a novelist; Paul Horgan an historian, and of the two I prefer the truth. Anyone interested in the history of the Rio Grande will be delighted with Paul Horgan's two-volume introduction to it.

Russell S. Smith was the Police Chief in San Angelo, Texas for years. He was an outstanding officer. There were many twists and turns in this book, it kept my interest and eyes on the printed page. He is a true detective, enjoying the chase as he traced the facts in order to find the truth.

What a great book! Author, retired Texas Police Chief Russell Smith, has a unique way of talking to the reader. This is an interesting account of the "Caveman Bandit" - in a time much like the Wild West but in the 1960's. Most certainly all those who have roots in West TX would be interested as well as Texans everywhere. As a Californian, who has never been to that part of the country, I referred to a TX map to visualize the expanse of land that the Bandit inhabited. Wow - it is really incredible to think that a human was capable of covering such an enormous territory. Also incredible is the way this man slinked in and out of businesses, houses, rugged terrain, in and out of Mexico and Texas -without detection - sometimes underneathe the noses of those who so desperately hunted him. Yes, the bandit was incredibly animal-like: digging for shelter in caves, surviving off the land, outwitting and outrunning his prey. You will have to read this book for the interesting details and to see how the story ends. Bravo Chief Smith!

Russell Smith has a way of telling a story so that you see every event, almost as if you were there when it happened. You see the rugged country and the people very vividly in your mind. You feel the suspense as the caveman bandit enters a home at night while the occupants are sleeping. You laugh as two macho teenage boys decide they will be heroes and catch the bandit one dark, cold night. I got so involved in the story, I didn't want it to end.

What a great book. I could visualize the caveman bandit, his hiding spots, the rough land, the houses and the people. Russell Smith brings the characters and the landscape to life. Chapter 1 was a great way to start the book and it hooked me. I can't wait to read his next book.

"The Gun That Wasn't There" is an interesting true story about a man who lived off the land, the ranches, and the businesses of the area he was in. The local people knew about him, had often seen him, but it wasn't unusual for "illegals" to cross their ranches so they didn't pay much attention to him until he broke into a house while the people were home and attacked them. This is a story about man against man, one wanting to be left alone to survive the way he knew best, and those who wanted to stop him.

The book includes several original photographs as well as recent photos of the area. The author paints such a vivid description of the area that you already know what is there without seeing the photographs. There are numerous endnotes that historians and genealogists will love.

This book was a gift for a 74 year old friend of mine and I did not read this book, but, she has been looking for it for a long time and is very happy with it.

Since the mid nineties hundreds of bodies of young women have been found and thousands - yes, thousands - still remain missing and unaccounted for in Juarez, Mexico; and those bodies uncovered have usually appeared more gruesome than most people can possibly imagine, some mutilated beyond recognition.

How could this be, in this modern day and age - and in such large numbers? This has been called a femicide movement - but what could cause and sustain such crimes of hate over this long a period of time? And how could the Mexican governments fail to solve this "crime of the century"?

If you are a passionate reader then you will rejoice in the brilliant phrasings, insights and pacing found in Stella Pope Durate's important novel, laying down the pieces of this compelling tale for you faster than you can run - enthralling you with its horrific deeds still going on today, in real life, in Ciudad Juarez. If you are a casual reader than this book may turn you into an avid one.

Stella Pope Duarte grew up in a poor barrio in Phoenix, and she has spent months and months researching the history of northern Mexico and talking to the families of Juarez victims. She seamlessly integrates ancient legends of the region, one such being the 7-headed snake from the Chitlitipin mountains, el tsahuatsan, a legend passed down from generation to generation frightening the children of each, to suddenly spring into reality during a terrified young girl's grueling torture as a phantasmagorical nightmare.

Duarte looks at the dangerous mix of forces in the area: its extreme poverty amongst small islands of ostentatious wealth and greed; schools so sparse and inadequate that the poorest barely know of their existence; the massive influx of people from the south to find work in the new warehouses - las maquiladoras, and the ever-present machismo, a force much stronger than their religion, goading young men to wilder and wilder cries and acts of anger.

For some this book may prove a disquieting read as they begin to realize the sensational reality that is Juarez, but Duarte spares us the worst details giving us instead an examination of the life and environment of these people that is complimentary to the best in world literature. In an interview she promised that the reader "would walk in the shoes" of the young ladies of Juarez. We do so, grippingly, in the accounts Duarte gives us of Evita, Petra, and Mayela, and feel with them as "a sense of things gone wrong... a hole opened inside her, as if a piece of black sky had forced its way into her heart."

Here is a sample from Mayela's story, a girl so talented at painting she was known as la Ninita Frida:

"At night, Mayela's twin brother, dead at birth, came to her in her dreams. He was a beautiful baby, always smiling with her. He sat on her shoulder, or rode around in her pocket, a tiny baby with paper-thin wings like an angel's and microscopic feet with toenails that glowed like neon lights. Her twin brother told her she was not to be afraid of anything, as he would protect her now that she knew he was near. ... Over and over again she painted [him] Popo, a blue baby flying, with pink wings and shiny yellow toenails."

Duarte has said that her book is a memorial devoted to the many victims. It is indeed an artistic, beautiful memorial honoring the women's lives.

I have been to Juarez several times now- 5 times to volunteer with a group and 1 time to visit with a friend- and have become very interested in the femicides there. The first character introduced in the story is Evita, the street child, and my first impression of the book was that it was going to be too depressing to read (it seemed that maybe the author was purposely making Evita's story extra horrific, though it sadly could be an accurate/common experience). However, once I got a little further into the book and the other characters' stories were woven in, I became engrossed and couldn't put the book down. The author is an excellent story teller- I felt a real connection to the characters. I like how she informs readers of the situation in Juarez through three different perspectives. I highly recommend this book. and hope many people read it. Though the book is fiction, femicides are all too real in Juarez and women and their loved ones are living in fear.

I first heard about the Juarez murders when a friend rented 'Border Town'. I saw this book at a local independent bookstore and the cover caught my attention. Although it's a sad subject, I was drawn into this book and the characters of Petra,Mayela and Evita. Although their lives are hard, the poverty and machismo unbelievable, I rooted for these girls and their journey to hope and peace. The situation in Juarez is an outrage on so many levels but this is a simple book about simple people in believable real situations. The author says "you will walk with the girls'and that is the truth. The horror of life on the border comes off the pages but there is a silver lining. This is a human story of a very real and tragic situation. The girls themselves are the heroes. Gracias Stella Pope Duarte.

With the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, young Mexican women began taking jobs in U.S.-owned maquiladoras, or factories, in Juárez.

Many became unwitting victims of gruesome murders as they walked home from work at night. Critics have long accused Mexican authorities of callousness, even complicity.

Stella Pope Duarte's vital and eloquent novel, "If I Die in Juárez" (University of Arizona Press, $16.95 paperback), centers on these horrific, unsolved crimes, which have been dubbed the maquiladora murders. She relies on three young characters to tell the story.

I asked Duarte why she decided to use fiction rather than nonfiction to chronicle the plight of these women.

"This story is a very painful one not only for victims, but for their families and friends as well," she explained. "Several documentaries, books and films, and numerous articles have been written, (but) a story told from the perspective of three young girls has not been done in this way."

Ominously, she added: "I also was cautious about protecting the identity of the women, as I know there are retaliations from police and investigators."

Duarte relied on extensive research and interviews to create her three protagonists: Evita, a street urchin; Petra, a factory worker; and Mayela, an Indian girl of Tarahumara heritage.

Was Duarte ever overwhelmed by the subject matter?

"Absolutely, lots of times," she acknowledged. "The worst was when I read details of the mutilations.

Knowing what had been done to the bodies, and seeing photos of remains, mummified faces -- that was the worst ever."

But she stayed the course: "I would have run away from it all, but the story haunted me, held me fast."

By creating three female characters of different backgrounds, Duarte offers readers a cross-section of women who have been affected by these crimes.

"I had to have a woman in the maquiladora, then I had to have one who lived on the streets, and then I wanted to show the extreme poverty of Juárez, and so was born Mayela Sabina, my Tarahumara," she said.

The characters gripped her. "I couldn't let any of them go," she said. "They were meant to be there together, young, fragile and targets for abuse and murder."

The result of Duarte's research, creativity and passion is a novel that is as stunning as it is heart-rending. Her three protagonists feel real, and the reader cannot help but hope for their safety and that justice will prevail.

Also, if this novel does not make you angry, nothing will.

Duarte started her writing career more than a dozen years ago when she dreamed that her deceased father told her that her destiny was to become a writer. She also has written a short-story collection, "Fragile Night" (Bilingual Press), and a novel, "Let Their Spirits Dance" (HarperCollins).

But the award-winning author also has become known as an inspirational speaker on many topics, including women's rights, culture, diversity and literacy.

Her view of her role in writing "If I Die in Juárez" is striking for its humility: "I feel privileged to have shed one more light that might hasten the darkness away."

This novel, no doubt, will do that and much more.

[This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

nunca sabemos demasiado ni suficiente.
Con este manual puedes hacer lo que necesites:
Aprender desde el principio o mejorar

SI REALMENTE TE INTERESA aprender inglés bien y pronto !

Y ESTE LIBRO ME AHORRÓ EL DINERO Y EL ESFUERZO DE IR A UNA ACADEMIA...
Y realmente es RÁPIDO !

METODO ME SACO DE APUROS LA PRIMERA VEZ QUE FUI A ESTADOS UNIDOS...
Por eso, LO AMO !
Y ahora, lo estudian mis hijos !

came to live in the US, THIS BOOK TAUGHT US TO SPEAK, READ AND WRITE ENGLISH...
It's really good...Like my English... LOL... Right?
Now, I have bunchs of friends at school...

This volume is just as good as all the other Steinbeck volumes within the Library of America series -which is to say that this collection of stories and novels is second to none. Steinbeck was a force and the guy will change your life. Read this and people will actually smell you becoming smarter.

It is surely a shame that Mr. Steinbeck forever will be confined to the archipelago of socio-economico-political literature. Too often a smug reviewer writes of Steinbeck's "moving" portrayal of the Joad family and their struggle against a growing America. "Oh, how I can 'identify' with the Preacher!" HUMBUG. Mr. Steinbeck wrote words, not ideas. His art is exquisite and melodious and stock-full of imagery. His structure, even in the volumunious Grapes, is compact and economical. His style, even in the scientific Log, is artistic and exact. And his ideas, even in the idea-ed Harvest, are irrelevant. Buy this book. But don't buy it because the blurb on the back says something about the Joads being an American archetype of the twentieth century; instead, buy it because it is literature - American literature - at its finest. Every sentence. Every word.

Political statements are always dangerous: one either completely convinces a reader of one's argument or forever alienates them. And, unfortunately, the end result is rarely dependent upon the quality or force of argument made by the author, but rather entirely dependent upon the notions with which the reader entered the "discussion".

Knowing this, it seems that one has to be of a particular mindset in order to enjoy the novels collected in "The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1938-1941". The novels of this compilation attack many of the ideals upon which this country was founded -- and they do so by looking closely at those who have never really benefited from those ideals. This attack is carried out most effectively in the most prominent of the packaged novels: Steinbeck's classic "The Grapes of Wrath."

At an abstract level, this particular novel is an impassioned plea for change ... one that left many readers at the time of its publication both angry and frightened, and resulted in the book being placed on many academic "Banned" lists, and caused Steinbeck himself to be branded by some as anti-American.

That said, it is my opinion that "The Grapes of Wrath" is one of the best novels ever written, because it tells the story of those most affected by the Great Depression - those who never had much in the first place. In particular, it focuses on the Joad family as they are forced to relocate to California, to try to find enough work to put food on the table. Along with thousands of other displaced sharecroppers they are lured by colorful handbills advertising great jobs for all. California becomes Mecca to the families, many of whom have literally been forced out of their homes. Desperate, the families sell all of their belongings, buy cheap cars, and begin the arduous journey. Many do not make it, and those who do find to their dismay that all is not as promised.

This is an extremely powerful novel. The reader comes to know the members of the Joad family and their friends as people, not just as characters in a story. We are able to identify with them as they suffer hardship after hardship. Written in an accessible style, and spellbinding throughout, this novel is certainly a deserving classic, and it dominates this excellent new collection of Steinbeck's fiction.

grapes of wrath is a great book. it is about a family that goes through ups and downs every chapter. and a man who wats to get his family back on track, cause his father lost his farm land in Oklahoma. So they head to California to find new jobs but there new jobs arn't the same as having there own land, cause when they had there own land they had no boss but when they head to Cali. they are not happy cause they are bossed around.

I, like many, first read this _The Grapes of Wrath_ in high school. Then, it piqued a great curiosity about recent (this century) American history that my teachers could never satisfy. A recent re-reading, however, has shown me the great depth that I missed the first time. Read it slowly, savor the dogged, determined hopelessness that was life for many of our immediate ancestors. From the sad beginning to the desperate ending, it will teach you, and reach you.

This book is a little different from the others in the Josefina series. In this book, the Montoya family travels to Santa Fe and interact with an American trader. Through this adventure we learn about urban life in New Mexico and get to know Abuelito and Abuelita a little better. This book also addresses the changes that are coming to New Mexico in a more direct way that other books in this series. Though we enjoyed the book, I do want to point out a plot point that may raise concerns for some parents: Josefina and her sister do do a dangerous thing (go to town alone -- and this is a rough frontier town), though for a noble purpose.

A great book about ten year old Josefina traveling to Santa Fe. As Josefina Plays her wooden bird flute on top of the mountain she hears a copy of her flute sound. It was American Scout Patrick O'Toole. As Josefina gets to know Patrick more she and her sisters make a trade with him to get something very important for their father. But Patrick left before they got their item and Josefina has to face a fear and sneak out of the house to find out if Patrick really has gone.

This is a really good book but if you haven't read Josefina's series before than you should start with her first book and then make your way to this one. Happy Reading!

Josefina Saves the Day is about a girl age 10. She meets a american named Peter O'Toole, a scout for the wagon trail. Papa and Josefina trust Peter with their trades. Will Josefina get her trade? Will she and Francisa, and Clara, and Papa get what they want? To find out more read this book.

Ten year old Josefina Montoya, her father, and two of her sisters are staying with Josefina's grandfather and grandmother in Sante Fe while they await the arrival of an American wagon train. Josefina and her sisters trust a young American trader with a deal. But then, before he pays them, he leaves town. Has he cheated them? Josefina and her sisters must go on a daring late night adventure to find out.

This is another one of the American Girls series about Josefina Montoya, a ten-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824 (actually January of 1825). In this book, Josefina and her family travel to her grandfather's rancho to await the arrival of the wagon train from the United States. She meets her first American, Patrick O'Toole, a handsome scout for the wagon train. The family wants to trade blankets and mules with the Americans, but is this handsome young man trustworthy?

The final chapter is in an interesting and informative look at outdoor life in New Mexico in 1824. Jean-Paul Tibbles' illustrations, warm and filled with emotion, add a great deal to the story, and are a welcome addition.

My daughter and I both liked this book. The story has its scary parts, but it also has a nice lesson, and I enjoy the frank look at life then and there. This is another excellent book, a worthwhile addition to your library.