Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Cover Art by Bernadette Vigil and Dian Luger

ISBN: 978-0446600253

Ages 13 and above

Book Trailer by Mrs. Flores

The Big Read teaching resources

Good Reads book review:

Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima enters his life. She is a curandera, one who heals with herbs and magic. 'We cannot let her live her last days in loneliness,' says Antonio's mother. 'It is not the way of our people,' agrees his father. And so Ultima comes to live with Antonio's family in New Mexico. Soon Tony will journey to the threshold of manhood. Always, Ultima watches over him. She graces him with the courage to face childhood bigotry, diabolical possession, the moral collapse of his brother, and too many violent deaths. Under her wise guidance, Tony will probe the family ties that bind him, and he will find in himself the magical secrets of the pagan past—a mythic legacy equally as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America in which he has been schooled. At each turn in his life there is Ultima who will nurture the birth of his soul.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Set in the deep south during the Depression, this novel poignantly reveals racism in America during that time.  The reader sees the story through the eyes of Scout Finch, a curious tomboy learning about the community she lives in, the people who inhabit it, and how life is not always fair, despite one's best intentions.  Scout begins to see the hate in her own community and struggle, like her father, to understand.

This novel is one of my personal favorites.  It is an amazing coming of age story where the young Scout learns that the people in her hometown are not all as they seemed.  She watches first hand as her father, Atticus attempts to open the eyes of the people of Maycomb, while doing his best to raise his own children to view all people equally.

View the Link Below for a book trailer:

Mrs. Flores TKM