Amazon.com Review
Ciguapas are a secret tribe of beautiful people who live underwater in "cool blue caves hung with seashells and seaweed." Avoiding humans at all costs, they come out to hunt for food only at night. But the most remarkable thing about the
ciguapas is that their feet are on backward. Walking on land, their footprints lead in the opposite direction. This helps them keep the secret of their existence from humans, who, they believe, would cage them and force them to "take baths and do laundry and wash your hands before meals." But once upon a time, a brave, bold, bright-eyed--and curious--
ciguapa named Guapa almost made real her people's worst fears. Straying too close to a human home one night, Guapa is discovered by a young boy. Escaping, she vows to be more careful. But her curiosity is stronger than her word, and soon she finds herself in the hands of a surprisingly kind human family.
This lovely old legend gently shows readers that preconceptions are often just that--unbased biases that may very well change if the parties in question take a chance to discover the truth about each other. With lyrical grace, novelist, poet, and essayist Julia Alvarez retells this folk story remembered from her childhood in the Dominican Republic. Exquisite, dreamy illustrations by Fabian Negrin, replete with deep-sea blues and jungle greens, carry the reader to a mystical place of warmth and beauty. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Making her children's book debut, Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents) fulfills only some of the potential inherent in her story, which is based on an intriguing legend from the Dominican Republic, where she grew up. The ciguapas are a secret tribe who live underwater "in cool blue caves hung with seashells and seaweed" and venture onto land only at night because they are so afraid of humans. Their unusual anatomy helps preserve their hidden existenceAtheir feet are on backward, so that "when they walked on land, they left footprints going in the opposite directions." But Guapa, an especially beautiful ciguapa, does not fear humans, even after the ciguapa queen warns her that if they capture her, people "will force you to take baths and do laundry and wash your hands before meals." Guapa's curiosity nonetheless drives her to surface from the sea one bright day, whereupon an encounter with a kind boy and his family threatens to ruin the ciguapas' secret. Unfortunately, the narrative is not uniformly focused and the climactic episode lacks tension; the payoff seems small. To a large extent Negrin's (The Selfish Giant) stylized, luminous paintings compensate for the story's shortcomings. Somehow he renders the ciguapas as both elusive and earthy. Portraying the vegetation of the sunlit tropical setting as well as the ciguapas' watery, nocturnal frolics, he suggests a world lush with mystery. Ages 4-7. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
