Nine Days to Christmas (Folk)

By: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida

Ceci is a little girl from Mexico who is looking forward to her posada-a special Christmas party. Over the nine days before Ceci’s party she waits anxiously as things are being prepared for her posada. Ceci has a favorite doll named Gabina that she takes around over the nine days. Ceci picks a star piñata that is filled with fruit and broken during her posada. At first, Ceci is sad that her piñata is broken but then finds a star in the sky that she has never seen before and believes that her piñata is now a real star in the sky.

I like this book because it shows some traditional Mexico preparations for Christmas. The illustrations are extremely detailed and I like how the illustrator uses the colors to focus on certain characters or elements. I would use this book before Christmas to discuss other cultures and the character Ceci, would be a good character to get the students to connect their personal emotions and make predictions about.