The Tree Is Older Than You Are: A Bilingual Gathering of Poems & Stories from Mex

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Overview

A beautiful collection of bilingual poems and stories from Mexico, paired with paintings by Mexican artists.

“Remember, the tree is older than you are and you might find stories in its branches.”

So begins this wondrous collection of poems and stories from Mexico that invites us to imagine a car as sweet as strawberry ice cream, skin that kisses air and breeze-waving hair, a rabbit with little ears, a frog that runs instead of hops, and taxis filled with ghosts. Richly colored paintings interspersed throughout express not just the meaning of the words, but the magic within them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689820878
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	04/01/1998
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	1,064,388
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared widely. She edited the ALA Notable international poetry collection, This Same Sky, and The Tree Is Older Than You Are: Poems and Paintings from Mexico, as well as The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East. Her books of poems include Fuel, Red Suitcase, and Words Under the Words. A Guggenheim fellow, she is also the author of the young adult novel Habibi, which was named an ALA Notable Book, a Best Book for Young Adults, and winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award as well as the Book Publishers of Texas award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Naomi lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Michael, and their son, Madison.

Editorial Reviews

English translations appear alongside the Spanish poems and tales that explore everything from a table set for supper to a peach tree to a legend of rabbit's long ears. The selections include writings by Rosario Castellanos, Jos Juan Tablada, Octavio Paz and many others. Ages 8-up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 4 Up-A most enticing bilingual anthology that unfolds like a tapestry of images, languages, rhythms, and musicalities from all regions of Mexico. In the poem ``Lemon Tree,'' from which the title is derived, Jennifer Clement urges readers to, ``Remember,/the tree is older than you are/and you might find stories/in its branches.'' Each page holds the promise of a small jewel, poems that transform ordinary experience into extraordinary insight. There are several pieces written in Tzotzil, and one in Tzeltal, two of the languages of the Maya. Several traditional and modern folktales also appear, adding to the cosmogony and strengthening the roots of the tree. The illustrations, which appear every few pages as illuminations, employ a variety of styles and mediums, all reproduced in full color. Often magical and sometimes playful, the artwork completes the experience of being welcomed into a mysteriously friendly world in which there is much to be discovered and shared. Thorough endnotes on the contributors, translators, and acknowledgements as well as a list of titles in English and Spanish complete this remarkable volume that holds something for everyone.-Graciela Italiano, Weber State University, Ogden, UT

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