Pablo Remembers: The Fiesta of the Day of the Dead

by Isabel
September 26, 2018
Available in Spanish, Book, Celebrations, Family, Food, Hispanic & Latino, Other Languages

Pablo Remembers: The Fiesta of the Day of the Dead

By: George Ancona
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard/Harper Collins, 1993
Age Level: 9-12
Language: English or Spanish
ISBN: 0-688-11249-8, 0-688-11250-1 (library binding), Pablo Recuera 0-688-12894-7 (Spanish edition)

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On October 30, people everywhere in Mexico are busy preparing for the three-day fiesta of El Día de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Bakers are baking the traditional pan de muertos, the bread of the dead. Candy makers are making sugar skulls. Children are cutting out cardboard skeletons. Farmers are harvesting marigolds, flowers of the dead. Families are building and decorating alters to honor loved ones who have died. 

For Pablo, this year’s celebration is especially important. His abuelita, his grandmother, died two years ago and he misses her very much. But through the loving intimacy of the fiesta, he knows he will celebrate her memory again and again throughout his life.

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Recognition RECOGNITION

  • Pura Belpré Honor Book, 1996
  • Children’s Book of the Year, Bank Street College, 1993
  • San Francisco Chronicle – Children’s bestseller list for non-fiction
  • ABA Pick of the Lists, 1993

Reviews REVIEWS

“Ancona’s colorfully designed pages and his brightly lit photographs catch the affirmation of life that fills the Mexican festival arising from both Aztec and Christian customs honoring the dead. The marigolds seem larger and brighter than any you’ve seen before, the sugar skulls are joyful and the picnic in the cemetery a warm family gathering where love crosses the boundary between the solitary dead person and the family left behind.”
– Chicago Tribune