Childrens Book Review of The Night of Las Posadas Written and Illustrated by Tomie dePaola

The Night of Las Posadas begins during Advent rehearsals by mountain villagers for the procession of the inns. Sister Angie directs practice sessions, whose vocalizations include:

• Boos, hisses, snarls;
• Dialogue;
• Songs.

She expects:

• Her niece and nephew-in-law to portray Jesus’s parents;
• Two villagers to blacken beards and eyebrows and redden faces, dominate balcony-running, and make red satin capes and caps.

She finds time to:

• Make Lupe’s and Roberto’s respectively blue-and-white and brown costumes;
• Show Lupe and Roberto the carving of the Holy Couple made by Santero (religious icon-maker) Miguel Ovideo -- to celebrate her fifty years of sisterhood the previous year -- and placed by Father Vasquez near the altar rail.

But then she gets the flu.

Lupe’s and Roberto’s old pick-up acts up and dies after skidding in deep snow. Guitarists, horn-players, innkeepers, and singers await in Santa Fe’s historic Plaza lit with:

• Farolitos (paper-bag lanterns);
• Luminarias (bonfires).

A young lady on a donkey and a young man claim to be:

• Lupe’s and Roberto’s replacements;
• Sister Angie’s friends.

They get rejected by five devilish innkeepers. They mysteriously leave after the Palace of Governors’ courtyard gates open. Father Vasquez lets Lupe and Roberto -- who mysteriously and suddenly arrive -- sit near the manger. Back home, Sister Angie simultaneously lights a candle:

• After checking the Blessed Sacrament’s light;
• Before praying.  

She observes:

• Footprints from outside to the altar rail;
• Snow covering the carving’s figures.

New Mexico abounds with local color. The forty-seventh state’s multi-cultural, multi-lingual society becomes fascinatingly festive during the year’s-end holidays. The Night of Las Posadas begins and ends with page-long notes on New World celebrations of Old World customs. It communicates Advent anticipation and Christmas joy to:

• Ages 4 – 8 and upward;
• Preschoolers through third-graders and onward.

It draws upon the impressive work ethic of:

• Tomie dePaola, as artist and author;
• G.P. Putnam’s Sons, as publishers;
• Donna Mark and Marikka Tamura, as designers;
• South China Printing Co. Ltd., as printers.

The artwork -- effectuated in acrylic on handmade watercolor paper -- echoes the text’s message -- set in Stempl Schneidler -- regarding:

• Hispanic legacies;
• Holiday contexts;
• Miraculous events.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Las Posadas ("Inns") depicts the fruitless search of Mary and Joseph for a room in an inn.
"Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem": 1906 watercolor by William Brassey Hole (November 7, 1846 - October 22, 1917)
William Hole, The Life of Jesus: Eighty Pictures (1906), No. 3: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_and_Mary_arrive_at_Bethlehem.jpg

A tradition in New Mexico calls for constructing vigil fires (luminaria) of piñon pine during Las Posadas.
Closeup of piñon pine (Pinus edulis) foliage and cones: In addition to New Mexico, piñon pine's native homeland includes northern Arizona, Colorado, eastern and central Utah, Guadalupe Mountains in westernmost Texas, and southern Wyoming.
Placitas, Sandoval County, north central New Mexico: snowpeak, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinus_edulis_Snowpeak.jpg

In "The Night of Las Posadas," farolitos (paper-bag lanterns) illuminate the historic plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
farolitos at the 17th-century San José de los Jemez Mission Church
Jemez State Monument, Sandoval County, north central New Mexico: Larry Lamsa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Farolitos,_old_church,_Jemez_State_Monument.jpg

"The Night of Las Posadas - Tomie dePaola (read aloud)" (10:56) ~ reading with artwork (without text) from book
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ArflFunZk

The procession of the posadas concludes at the Palace of the Governors
Palace of the Governors at night, Dec. 26, 2021; 105 W Palace Avenue, Santa Fe Historic District: Dicklyon, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_the_Governors_at_night.jpg

Tomie dePaola's signature
personal autograph collection of Wikimedia Commons User: Bradforce28: Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TomiedePaola.png

dePaola, Tomie. 1999. The Night of Las Posadas. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Farfaglia, Fr. James. 2 December 2014. “Las Posadas -- a Catholic Hispanic Tradition.” Catholic Online: Catholic Life > Advent > Story. Retrieved December 2014.

• Available at: http://www.catholic.org/clife/advent/story.php?id=48757