The Beautiful Lady: Our Lady of Guadalupe - Book Review

This post was written as a Master's course assignment for Texas Woman's University.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mora, Pat. 2012. THE BEAUTIFUL LADY: OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE. Ill. by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. ISBN 9780375868382

2. PLOT SUMMARY

This story weaves the tale of the mystical and mysterious woman, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the best-known manifestation of the Virgin Mary in the Americas. A warm and generous grandmother has two young visitors: her granddaughter and a friend, to whom she regales the tale of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a story that dates far back, generations ago, to Mexico City. The legacy of the story and Our Lady has been passed down over the years and revered all over the world, causing many people to make a pilgrimage to visit the holy site where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared long ago to a man named Juan Diego.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Mora offers a simple story, told from the viewpoint of the Grandmother. The words are gentle and comforting, and yet informative. Grandma speaks with a kind, knowing authority, a style that translates across languages. The story provides a nice blend of Spanish words with English words, and gives just enough to keep the reader engaged and guessing, but not so much as to cause confusion.

There are quite a few cultural markers in the story, but Mora does not allow the reader to become lost in the details. The story ages back over many generations, and Mora does a nice job of transporting the reader back to the olden times, of when the story takes place, and then re-transporting the reader back to modern times, with Grandma and the girls. Grandma bakes special cookies to help the girls celebrate the day, and though there is not a recipe, this warm ending is a nice idea and incentive for adults to enhance the story when reading it with children.

The illustrations greatly illuminate this story, in particular, the illustration of the roses and of Our Lady herself. The painted images express emotion and lots of bright colors, and they are tactile, graceful, lovely, memorable, and indicative of a beautiful cultural spectacle.

There were a couple of moments when I got caught up with the text and had to revisit a page in order to understand what was being conveyed. After the first time reading through, I was able to process the story a little bit better, and would recommend reading a couple of times through, if sharing out loud to a group.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "The author pays loving tribute to Mexico's Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe"

Review in BOOKLIST: "Mora approached the story without tricks, using simple, delicate language"

5. CONNECTIONS

*Children who enjoy this book might look for other books on religious history and cultural heritage, such as:

THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN THE EARLY ISLAMIC WORLD, by Jim Whiting.

THE GREATEST GIFT: THE STORY OF THE OTHER WISE MAN, retold by Susan Summers, illustrated by Jackie Morris.

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI or RUMI: WHIRLING DERVISH or THE LEGEND OF LAO TZU AND THE TAO TE CHING, by Demi.