Rudolfo Anaya’s The Farolitos of Christmas

The 1987 story of the title returns in a newly illustrated edition, accompanied by a 1981 article Anaya wrote about New Mexican Christmas traditions, as well as a previously unpublished poem recounting his holiday memories during WWII. Luz’s abuelo is too sick to stack logs and light the traditional holiday luminarias (a term that refers to bonfires in this story), which serve as invitations to villagers dressed as shepherds to come sing on Christmas Eve. Luz finds a solution: placing candles into bags filled with sand to create farolitos (which are, somewhat confusingly, commonly called luminarias, as Anaya notes). Córdova uses traces of cobalt blue to subtly outline the figures and objects in her stately, thickly painted images, which have a gentle luminescence that, fittingly, calls to mind lantern light. Ages 9–13. (Nov.)