This loving look at the author's childhood in a traditional Mexican American community in southern Texas bursts with life, with scenes including a community fundraising cakewalk, a quinceañera celebration, and a Christmas Los Posadas procession. This splendid fifteenth-anniversary edition has a larger trim size and a new layout, as well as an introduction by Sandra Cisneros and an afterword by Pat Mora.

Gr 1-4-- An inspired celebration of American cultural diversity in English and Spanish. Lomas Garza presents a charming series of paintings while relating remembrances of her childhood in Kingsville, Texas, near the Mexican border. The brilliantly colored images teem with life and exude the glow of nostalgia. Lomas Garza's vignettes are similar in their primitive folk style to those of Grandma Moses. Whether it's the family eating watermelon on the porch, Grandfather taking a skinned rabbit into the kitchen for dinner, or a dead hammerhead shark on the beach, each moment is fully captured in all its freshness and immediacy. The English text is simple and reads smoothly, but it is Zubizarreta's Spanish rendition that has real verve and style. From the exquisite cut-paper images on the text pages, to the brilliant paintings, to the strong family bonds expressed in the text, Family Pictures/Cuadros de familia is a visual feast, and an aural delight. --Ann Welton, University Child Development School, Seattle