Working in the Mexican folk art tradition of papel picado (cut-paper art), Lomas Garza creates magic windows through which she invites the audience to look at the world of her family, Southwestern community, and Mexican heritage. Designed like stained glass windows, these vibrantly outlined pieces, which show homey scenes as well as elements of the natural world, hold the eye with their entrancing play between positive and negative spaces. In bilingual narration (the Spanish translation by Francisco X. Alarcon), Lomas Garza tells personal stories and explains the cultural history explored in each cut-paper piece.

As told to Harriet Rohmer. In a bilingual text, an artist explores her Mexican heritage by describing various subjects in her papel picado, cut-paper art. Appropriately enough, the Spanish translation contains some word choices that are colloquial only to Mexico, but the translated text is choppy at times, and a paragraph is missing on one page. Nevertheless, the book provides a unique, personal perspective.

Gr 1-5-A collection of full-page reproductions of Lomas Garza's papel picado, cut-paper art, accompanied by short explanatory narratives in Spanish and English. The intricate cutouts have bold, thick lines and severe angles and the artist uses delicate connectors, such as cactus spines and corn silk, to hold the images together. Most of the cutouts are done with black paper, although a few are cut from yellow or blue paper, and all of them feature a generous use of negative space through which monochromatic backgrounds of yellows, blues, pinks, oranges, and greens are revealed. Many of the pictures present scenes of the Mexican-American artist's childhood and family, such as a close-up of her grandfather's hands cutting a nopal cactus. The remainder are scenes of Mexican flora and fauna, such as two hummingbirds drinking nectar from cactus flowers. A brief description accompanies each scene. Although the cutouts successfully demonstrate Lomas Garza's considerable artistic skill, the presentation is not entirely effective. The reproductions appear flat, making them look more like computer-generated art than fragile paper cutouts. The book can best be used and most fully appreciated in conjunction with a hands-on introduction to the art form.-Denise E. Agosto, formerly at Midland County Public Library, TX Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.