Mexique (María José Ferrada/Ana Penyas) Picture Book Discussion Guide
- PDF
Description
Discuss the stirring picture book Mexique in a classroom, library, or other setting. Arranged by Common Core literature standards, this free downloadable pdf will jumpstart conversations and invite reflection on the book's themes. Thematic connections include refugees, displacement and immigration, war, resettlement, and home. The guide also includes a timeline and links to further resources in both English and Spanish.
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers would like to thank Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storyteller, Destry Maria Sibley, a writer, producer, and descendant of a Mexique passenger, for her input and assistance with this project.
About Mexique: On May 27, 1937, over four hundred children sailed for Morelia, Mexico, fleeing the violence of the Spanish Civil War. Home was no longer safe, and Mexico was welcoming refugees by the thousands. Each child packed a suitcase and boarded the Mexique, expecting to return home in a few months. This was just a short trip, an extra-long summer vacation, they thought. But the war did not end in a few months, and the children stayed, waiting and wondering, in Mexico. When the war finally ended, a dictator—the Fascist Francisco Franco—ruled Spain. Home was even more dangerous than before.
This moving book invites readers onto the Mexique with the “children of Morelia,” many of whom never returned to Spain during Franco’s almost forty-year regime. Poignant and poetically told, Mexique opens important conversations about hope, resilience, and the lives of displaced people in the past and today.
Awards and honors for this book include:
- USBBY Outstanding International Book 2020
- Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2020
- NCTE Notable Poetry Book 2021
- Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
For more about Mexique, please visit the book’s page on the Eerdmans site. You can find interviews with the creators and more on Eerdlings, the official blog of Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Author María José Ferrada’s next book, Niños: Poems for the Lost Children of Chile, will be released in March 2021.
