What the Aztecs Told Me

Children's Literature - Gisela Jernigan

Based on the work of the Spanish friar and missionary, Bernardino de Sahagun, who interviewed Aztec elders shortly after the Conquest, this unique picture book describes many aspects of Aztec culture from a native point of view. Depicted are: ceremonies (some including human sacrifices), customs relating to warfare, trade, and healing, their knowledge of plants, animals, and astronomy, and three riddles. The illustrations are taken from paintings by native artists that are found in the Florentine Codex. The violent aspects of this authentic account make this book more suitable for older readers. A source note and glossary are included. 1997 (orig.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5--Culled from the Florentine Codex (a remarkable 12-volume encyclopedia in Nahuatl and Spanish titled Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana written by Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagun in the 16th century), this slim book whispers down the intervening ages like a ghostly voice from a remote past. "There was never a people so given over to their gods... they believed that the order of the universe and the life of man depended on it" In a sparse text that mirrors a curious mind, a series of windows are opened into a culture vanquished and vanishing even as Friar Bernardino set his ink-laden quill to parchment. Notes on religion, government, trade, and war are accompanied by humbler topics such as food, name choices for children, unusual animals and plants, and even riddles. The illustrations are taken from the Codex itself: time-faded earth-toned vignettes of fishing and healing, war and human sacrifice. Created by native artists trained by the Spanish, they retain the look of bas-reliefs carved into temples and ceremonial stelas. Despite its brevity, a revelation.--Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY