Pablo's Tree

Title: Pablo’s Tree
Author: Pat Mora
Illustrator: Cecily Lang
Genre: Multicultural

Summary
Pablo’s Tree is a book that captures the special bond between a grandparent and child. The day Lito, the grandfather, found out that his daughter was going to adopt a child, he went down to the nursery and bought a small tree. Lito was so excited to see Pablo for the first time. After holding Pablo for awhile, Lito decided it was time to plant the tree. Each year on Pablo’s birthday, Lito decorates the tree with something new. On his first birthday, he decorated it with streamers. On Pablo’s second birthday, he tied balloons to the tree. When Pablo’s third birthday came along, he had put paper lanterns on his tree. On his forth birthday, Lito hung birdcages all over the tree. This year was Pablo’s fifth birthday. Pablo was extremely excited to see what Lito had decorated his tree with this year. On the way to Lito’s house, Pablo begged his Mama to tell him what was on the tree, she smiled and said “Don’t you like surprises?” Once they arrived at Lito’s house, Pablo gave Lito a huge hug and asked him if they could go sit under his tree and play with all his new toys. The two of them walked out the door and Pablo sees that his tree has colored bells and wind chimes all around it; he gets extremely excited! Next, Pablo and Lito sit under the tree and play with all the new toys. Lito tells Pablo the entire story about how his tree came into existence. The two of them have fun the rest of the night sitting under the tree, eating apples, and playing with the toys.

Classroom Connection
Pablo’s Tree is a multicultural book about a boy and his birthday tree. The book is Spanish/Mexican oriented and the illustrations portray that of the Mexican culture. It would be a good book to use when exploring different types of cultures. Children could research the Mexican culture and then compare what they found to what is portrayed in the book. It would be interesting to see if the book portrayed authenticity of the Mexican culture.