Today
I received a book I had ordered at Better World Books. It is the picture book Paco and the Witch
written by Felix Pitre and illustrated by Christy Hale. This story is his retelling of a Puerto Rican
folktale.
When reading the book, I discovered many
elements of traditional tales that are interwoven in this beautiful
retelling. Paco is a boy that goes to
get the “turron” that his mother had forgotten to pick up. On his way, he finds an old lady that is really
a witch and tricks him into her home where he is imprisoned with a spell. In order to escape, he must guess her
name. The story echoes “Hansel and Gretel” in having an imprisoned child as well as “Rumpelstiltskin” in the
guessing of the name.
Paco desperately tries to guess the
witch’s name as he is given tasks to fulfill like picking up “leña” as well as
a “gandules”. In his third task and last
opportunity to free himself by guessing her name, he is befriended by a crab who
becomes the key to his freedom.
The story ends as a pour quoi tale where the reader is told why nowadays a crab runs to
hide whenever it sees a person nearby.
In this rainy day where I was looking for
a ray of sunshine, the picture book Paco and the Witch brought the
Caribbean sunshine within its beautifully illustrated book. It is a book which I would recommend to enjoy
and share with the young readers of your life.
