Maria: A Christmas Story

Taylor, Theodore

ISBN 10: 0152177639 ISBN 13: 9780152177638

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1992

Synopsis

Envious of her wealthy neighbors' plans to create extravagant floats as entries in the annual Christmas parade, Maria volunteers her family to produce a float and finds inspiration in a painting that captures the true spirit of Christmas.

About this title

About the Author:

Theodore Taylor is the author of a dozen books for young readers. He lives in Laguna Beach, California, with his wife, Flora.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6-- Maria, 11, lives on her Mexican-American family's tiny vegetable farm, which is sandwiched between two giant ranches. The daughters of these wealthy neighbors are Maria's friends, but unthinkingly irritate her with their constant chatter of their moneyed families' elaborate floats to be entered in the annual Christmas parade. Impulsively, Maria enters, too; this appalls her parents but they create a Nativity scene mounted on a farm wagon, pulled by other Mexican-Americans who until now had been excluded from the parade. Taylor's brief tale is more about perceived barriers of economics and race than about Christmas. Maria joins the parade, not because of her holiday spirit, but because she can no longer stand silently by while others brag. Her father agrees only because he is similiarly annoyed. After the difficulties and subsequent coming together of the community, winning a trophy in the parade pales. Or at least it should. Taylor spends so much time describing the problems, and so little time on the solution, that readers almost miss it. Useful, perhaps, in multicultural studies, but not as a seasonal feel-good read. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0152177639
• ISBN 13: 9780152177638
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 84