Chaska and the Golden Doll

The story is wordy and the art inexpert, but this book's focus on Incan culture gives it some educational value. Chaska lives in a remote village in the Andes, where she ``dreams of writing her name, and of reading books with stories and pictures in them.'' But the overcrowded school cannot accommodate her. So Chaska spends her days with her grandfather, listening to tales of the Sacred Valley of the Incas (when the Sun God would sweat, Grandfather tells her, ``the drops fell to earth as gold''). While gathering firewood for dinner one afternoon, Chaska unearths what she thinks is a golden doll--it is actually an Inca idol. With the counsel of community elders, Chaska sells the doll to a history museum, using the proceeds to build a schoolhouse large enough for all the children of the village. An author's note explains that the story is true, and briefly discusses the general lack of schools in villages like Chaska's. Ages 4-8. (May)