Magic Windows by Carmen Lomas Garza

Garza, C. L., Rohmer, H., & Schecter, D. (1999). Magic windows. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.

Throughout the nonfiction book, the author, who is also the illustrator, reminisces about happy times with her family, and different animals that were significant to her Hispanic culture during her childhood. For example, in one story the author talks about the cut-out she created of her mom rolling tortillas and why they are an important piece in cooking in the Hispanic culture, and her life. The author’s mom always made flour tortillas, which were her favorite. She loved watching her mom cook, sew and do artwork. She was captivated by everything her mom did. Each picture is designed to look as if the reader is looking through windows of various scenes, described in the text, throughout the author’ life. The author uses cut-out paper to create the intricate paper artwork. Each picture is accompanied with a story that explains how the author came up with the idea of the picture and what the picture depicts. The colors used in the book are a symbolization of the Hispanic culture. This bilingual book is in both English and Spanish and the illustrations portray cultural diversity and family bonds. In 2000, Magic Windows won the Pura Belpre Illustrator award. I would recommend this to an art teacher who is teaching a unit on cut-out paper artwork.