Once upon a time no creatures on Earth died. But they had baby after baby, and before long the world grew crowded. Death decided to solve the problem by challenging everyone to a skip-rope contest — as an immortal, Death won every time, and one by one everyone succumbed to her dare. Soon, every living being knew Death. This intriguing fable is based on Francisco Toledo’s series of engravings of Death, a dominant figure in Mexican culture. Toledo, the heir to the great generation of Mexican artists that included Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, has imaginatively explored this integral part of life, and his entrancing images are matched by poetic text from his wife Natalia.
Related: Americas, Folklore and Fairy Tales, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Mexico
- ISBN: 9780888997890
- Author: Toledo, Natalia
- Illustrator: Toledo, Francisco
- Translator: Amado, Elisa
- Published: 2007, Groundwood Books
- Themes: cultures, Death, legends
- Descriptors: Americas, Folklore and Fairy Tales, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Mexico
- No. of pages: 56
I read this book to a class of fourth graders and they loved it. They loved the trickery and the pictures of Death as it challenged each and every being to a jump rope contest. The children were not all that enamoured with the colors of the pitures and said they looked like chalk paintings on the playground, but they did enjoy the story. The selection was paired with english and spanish text which was a bonus for some of my students that can read spansih. They were especially smitten by the book and many of them told their parents about the book.