Chavela and the Magic Bubble
Sunday, May 20, 2012
by: Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo

Section: Children's Book Reviews


April 2010 Newsletter

Reviewed by Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo is an Assistant & Foster-EBSCO Endowed Professor School of Library & Information Studies University of Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in Communication and Information Studies from the University of Alabama and holds a Masters of Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama.



Little Chavela loves chewing gum and blowing it into bubbles of all shapes and sizes. She especially enjoys sharing a piece of her chicle with her Abuelita and listening to stories about her grandmother’s childhood in Mexico. One morning the young girl finds a package of Magic Chicle which she chews and blows into a magnificent pink bubble that transports her back in time to the Mexican village where her great grandfather was a chiclero harvesting the sap of the sapodilla tree to make gum. While in this rainforest, Chavela experiences its supernatural beauty and meets a mysterious girl with a doll in a blue dress. Imbued with magical realism, this mouth-watering, snappy tale will dazzle readers as its text changes shape along with Chavela’s many bubbles. At the same time, Morales’ blazing, color-suffused illustrations will have young children pouring over the book for hours in search of their own magical stick of chicle. An adaptation of the Latin American folk song “Tengo una muñeca” is also included along with an author’s note chicleros. Highly Recommended.
Chavela and the Magic Bubble. Monica Brown. Illus. by Magaly Morales. New York: Clarion Books, 2010. Unpaged. $16.00 (Hardcover). ISBN 978-0-547-241-24197-5. Grades PreK-3. English with Spanish.
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