The Fiesta Dress: A Quinceanera Tale

This is one of our favorite books...even my son enjoys it. It's about a Quincenera (a festive party for a 15 year old girl, when she comes of age), but can easily be read by children who don't speak any Spanish or understand Quincenera. My 7 year old says it's "the best book ever!!!". We've been reading it (from the library) for a few years and finally bought it for our permanent collection.It's about the little girl and her relatives who are getting ready for the party (her aunts are making tamales, the uncles decorating the yard, the friends all doing their hair, etc.) She wants to be more involved and gets the dog to play but he escapes and grabs a part of her sister's Quincenera dress and takes off. She is able to get the dog and sash back and everyone dotes on her. The book ends at the party. It's a very upbeat book with great pictures and a fun tale. You can't go wrong!

This is another case that after reading it from a library copy we fell in love and bought one for ourselves.I picked this up also unintentionally, but it turned out to be a big hit. My not yet 3 year old daughter loved to see Eva's pink dress and how Lolo used the tamale to get her sister's white sash back. She asked me to read it for her again and again, so many times that she could even re-tell the story herself to her little doll! Now that she has some other interesting books to read, she would still pick up this one sometimes.The book has a nice story, not too simple nor too complicated, and the drawings are vivid and fun. I recommended it to a friend of mine and her daughter liked it also.

I am always looking to expose my children to as many different cultures as possible, and this book fit the bill for me. I am quite picky about what I expose my kids to, and what messages are sent by books, so I was initially wary about some of the reviews that suggested that the main character was too concerned about being the focus of attention. This is a message I definitely would not want to convey to my children. However, I took a chance on the $1 Kindle edition, and I'm glad I did. To me, the young girl is not obnoxious. Her parents and much older sister adore her and give her lots of attention, and she happens to play second fiddle on this day. However, my opinion is that this is not a case of spoiling nor brattiness; it's simply the young child's perception of things, somewhat accurately, because she seems to be the baby of the entire extended family. You don't have to worry about the older sister not being loved or adored by her parents. She is approx. 10 years older and simply in a very different sort of relationship with her parents.I also had no problem with the fact that a "quinceanera" was not explicitly explained. In fact, I thought the use of inductive reasoning was great. Context clues do wonders, and parents should talk through books with their kids. Lots of Spanish words were used without explanation, and again, I liked that. It gives the child a chance to consider what that word could mean, again using context clues.

My daughter loves this book. She loves the story line of the little mischievous girl. We also love that there is a Spanish influence and words in the book. There is also a dictionary in the back of the book with the Spanish words and what they mean in English. Would highly recommend this book for a little girl who loves to get into some trouble 🤪

The book was filthy. The back was covered in sticky yellow stuff. One of the pages had a piece torn off and the whole book had been folded/crinkled.

This beautifully illustrated childrens' book tells girls and their grandmothers all about the 15-year-old's Quinceanera, what it means, how it's celebrated, its traditions, with a delightful story of what happened to the very important dress. My granddaughter celebrated hers this year, and showing this book to my friends made explaining the tradition of another culture much simpler. Luckily I found this Amazon bargain book while browsing.

Since I live in Arizona, which is close to Mexico, I'd heard about quinceanara parties from Spanish-speaking friends of mine. They explained to me how the fiesta and mass celebrates a 15-year-old girl comes of age. I thought the book did a good job of showing the stress of prepping for a Quinceanara, and the fun, too.

Wanted to add books that my students could relate to as this book fits right in.