Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

Eggs, seeds, and springtime
March 21, 2008

Holy Week. South Texas. Winter’s end. Ninety-odd degrees in the shade.

Stoplight. Next lane over, a gleaming SUV. Windows up. Man on cellphone. Earnest conversation. Beside him on the passenger seat: Ten dozen colored eggs.

No need to adjust your set. It’s all perfectly normal.

The eggs are full of confetti, and you break ‘em over people’s heads on Easter Sunday. It’s gonna look like it rained colored paper around here. The top two photos are from the local supermarket, but folks can buy cascarones from streetside vendors too. Or you can make them yourself.

Don’t take my word for this. Instead read Chapter 4 of the 2006 Pura Belpré medal-winner for narrative The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales; that delightful cascarón story happened right here in McAllen. Or go up the road to Kingsville for Carmen Lomas Garza’s acclaimed In My Family/En mi familia if you want to see some paintings.

Just be careful you stick with domestic cascarones this year, y’hear?

Your vegan-friendly option is served up by the good people at Reading Is Fundamental. It’s a new bilingual Web resource called Semillitas de aprendizaje/Leading to Reading for parents and other educators of young children. Semillitas is an appealing site with stories, songs, games, and fun stuff for babies, preschoolers, and adults too.

It has a pretty good book search tool that allows you to specify an age group (0-1 or 2-3 or 4-5 years) and a favorite theme or animal. Like, maybe, the mouse. If you’re a big fan of Maisy--and, come on: why wouldn’t you be?--you might appreciate the site’s Spanish-langauge interview with that little ratoncita’s creator Lucy Cousins.

While you’re there don‘t miss the other Reading Is Fundamental section in Spanish, ¡Leamos en familia!, with its interactive thematic "house," book recommendations, and advice for us oldsters about how to share the joy of reading with the little guys.There are direct links to these at the RIF.org home page, in the purply-pink box on the right hand side labeled "RIF Favorites."


Because, you know, books are cascarones, right? When you bust them against people's heads, all kinds of surprising multicolored things can come out. Like, for example, dubious metaphors, sometimes. But cut me some slack here.

And if you'll be celebrating this weekend, do think about adding confetti to the festivities. It's amazing how that stuff can brighten your day. Don't even bother to vacuum it up, if you want to get the full benefit. Just a friendly tip.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on March 21, 2008 | Comments (0)