Talking Eagle and the Lady of the Roses: The Story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe

This tender story tells of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to an indigenous healer, Talking Eagle, who had converted to Catholicism, becoming Juan Diego. When Mary instructs Juan Diego to tell the bishop to build a "house of prayers" on the hill upon which she appears, he is unable to persuade the bishop until Mary produces blooming roses in December. Rendered in dazzling jewel tones, Córdova's drawings possess a quiet radiance; while the story skims over the history of Spain's colonization of Mexico, Gollogly's afterword notes that "[c]onversion... was often enforced at the point of a sword." Ages 5–up. (Feb.)