Doña Flor
By Pat Mora
Illustrated by Raul Colón
Knopf, $15.95
40 pages
ISBN 0375823379
Ages 6-10

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REVIEW BY LYNN BECKWITH

Somewhere deep in the American Southwest lives a big lady—a really big lady. Big enough to be Swamp Angel's sister or Paul Bunyan's cousin, Doña Flor lives in the mountains where she was born. Nurtured by the sweet songs of her mother, Flor grew and grew and grew, until she was big enough to build her own house, "as big as a mountain and as open as a canyon."

Flor might be big, but she is a gentle giant, blessed with the ability to talk to animals of all sizes, from the teeniest bug to the village schoolchildren to the most ferocious puma. And, when one of these pumas terrorizes her neighbors and friends, Doña Flor steps in and tames the giant cat and saves her village.

Pat Mora and Raul Colón, who created the award-winning picture book Tomás and the Library Lady, team up again to bring children a traditional-sounding tale with a Spanish accent. With Spanish words easily sprinkled among the English, Doña Flor reads like a story told by an abuela to her English-speaking grandchildren. And this abuela loves telling her story and adding delicious details each time she tells it—giant tortillas that can be used as rafts or roofs, Flor reading an entire encyclopedia in five minutes, and tiny pumas sleeping in the wrinkles of her dress.

Colón's signature art, a combination of watercolor, etching and litho pencils, carefully reflects the plot, helping the non-Spanish reader understand the occasional unfamiliar words. Often, Colón draws Flor so large that her head is cut off by the frame of the illustration. Stomping off to find the troublesome puma, Flor's angry fists pump the air as she completely fills the frame. Later, with tiny villagers at her feet, our heroine plucks una estrella from the night sky and hangs the star over her door so her friends can find their way to her.

Creating the feeling of an old-fashioned tall tale, Mora and Colón have crafted an original story, filled with gentle rhythms of a bedtime lullaby certain to satisfy young readers.