A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia

If you have read a book aloud twenty-nine times, I think you have the right to call it a read book. And that's what I did last week with this book.

We visited the Dominican Republic. We chose our books to Dominican music including Chichi Peralta and Ramon Orlando. We smelled a just-peeled orange (“like tickling in your nose”). We looked at necklaces and candles of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We talked about legends. But most of all, we read this beautiful old story from the Dominican Republic, as waited with Maria for her father to come home and dreamed with Maria as she learned about planting oranges and saying gracias and rejoiced with Maria as the old friend of her father's unrolled a blanket with an image of Our Lady made from falling stars.

It was a beautiful week.