![]() ![]() They then fly through the night in search of prey. A human-sized bird with a woman's face, Lechuza are women who have sold their souls to the devil in exchange for magical powers.Īt night, they transform into monsters with a bird's body and a woman's face, similar to depictions of harpies in Greek mythology. ![]() Tales of Lechuza are quite popular in Mexico and Texas. Lechuza are either shape-shifting witches or spirits in Hispanic folklore. (Easy reader.Welcome back to The Freaky Deaky! Today the gang tackles the eerily spooky legend of Le Lechuza Bruja, the Owl Witch of Mexican/Hispanic folklore, as well as other examples of half woman / half bird hybrids found throughout history. Sullivan’s illustrations provide intriguing period details in costumes, tools, and buildings, as well as a clever front endpaper of fossil-strewn ground covered with muddy paw prints. Despite this drawback, both Mary Ann and Tray are appealing characters and the discovery of the fossils and subsequent notice from scientists, collectors, and even royalty is appealing and well written. The story focuses a little too much on the dog, and the title misses a great opportunity to completely acknowledge a girl accomplishing something important in the scientific world, especially in a much earlier era and without formal training or education. They discovered the first pterodactyl found in England, and the name was assigned to their fossil. They lived on the coast of England in the early 1800s, although the time frame is given only as “a long, long time ago.” Mary Ann and Tray became famous for their discoveries of fossils, including dinosaur bones. This easy reader for children reading at the fluency level recounts the story of a girl named Mary Ann Anning and her dog, Tray. When Lurleen tracks the bootless Bubba down, ``Dwayne and Milton and their wicked daddy threw chicken fits.'' Bubba and babe, hair as big as a Texas sun, ride off to a life of happy ranching, and readers will be proud to have been along for the courtship. The other half of the happy couple is Miz Lurleen, who owns ``the biggest spread west of the Brazos.'' She craves male companionship to help her work the place, ``and it wouldn't hurt if he was cute as a cow's ear, either.'' There are no surprises in this version except in the hilarious way the premise plays itself out and in Warhola's delightful visual surprises. The protagonist is Bubba, appropriately downtrodden and overworked by his wicked stepdaddy and loathsome brothers Dwayne and Milton, who spend their days bossing him around. 6-8)Ī Cinderella parody features the off-the-wall, whang-dang Texas hyperbole of Ketteman (The Year of No More Corn, 1993, etc.) and the insouciance of Warhola, who proves himself only too capable of creating a fairy godcow that she's so appealingly whimsical makes it easy to accept the classic tale's inversions. What might work well as an oral cautionary tale translates into a detrimentally moralistic book. Lurid gouaches paint grotesque expressions, and the device of a vignette of the grandmother’s face gradually transforming into the frightening bird adds to the disquieting theme. With a suspicious white feather falling from her hair, Grandma intervenes to assure Zulema that it was just a bad dream. Undeterred, Zulema continues in her ways, but at night she investigates a tapping at her window and discovers the oversized, white-feathered body and creepy wide eyes of the Witch Owl, ready to take an instantly reformed Zulema away. But she finds her comeuppance in her 90-year-old grandmother, who warns her of the Witch Owl that “always comes looking for mean little boys and girls” and takes them away. One-dimensional Zulema is “the meanest little girl in the whole wide world,” equally unleashing her wrath at children, adults, puppies and kittens. The disturbing use of scare tactics to reform a mean-spirited, nine-year-old bully lies at the heart of this bilingual English/Spanish story.
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