Chocolate Tree: [A Mayan Folktale] (On My Own Folklore)

First the positive, it's great to have some Maya folklaw available here. The illustrations are lovely and really capture the spirit of Maya art, the story is well told for the target age range and the language easily accessible with the added bonus of a glossary to explain the Mayan language, with correct pronounciation.All that said, readers are probably wondering why only two stars....There are some massive issues with this book, the first I would lay at the feet of the editor rather than the author. The use of the word Maya and general missuse of Mayan. Mayan only refers to the language, it is not a pluraization of the people. So the sporadic use of Mayan through the text is not only incorrect, there is not a single instance where Mayan is used correctly, it is confusing to the target audience and highly disrespectful to the people who it is about.My second point is in regards to the fruits that the Gods have in their feast. Bananas and mangoes - really??? While these fruits now grow in the Yucatan Peninsula today they were introduced after contact during Spanish rule and originally from the Indian Subcontinent. This was the ideal opportunity to introduce indigenous plants from the area such as Soursop or Mamey and if felt necessary explain them in the glossary. There are plenty more options that could have been taken and this definitely represents poor research and a missed opportunity.Lastly, although this may be due to funding or the location of the author, it seems strange that a post classic (the latest period of ancient Maya culture) site was chosen rather than a pre-classic or even a classic site.So even though this book had some positives I cannot in anyway recommend it, particularly as it seems targeted in line with the increase emphasis on the Maya in the national curriculum. It simply has too many mistakes and confusions that would have been easy fixes with an informed editor and some basic research.

My class read this as part of their topic and we wrote reviews. One pupil wrote:I am in year 5 and we are learning about the Maya, so we read this book. It is an interesting folk tale about the cacao tree, which was stolen from Paradise by Kukulkan and given as a present to the Mayan people.One good thing about the story is what it told us about the Mayan culture and way of life. I learnt the types of gods they had and how they watched the Mayan people at night. Also, I found out why chocolate is special to the Mayan people. Finally, the brilliant illustrations show how the people lived and how their temples looked. I would recommend this book because it gives interesting facts in a fun way.

Ordered in an emergency, came really quickly and perfect quality. Great book

Bought for school - Maya

This book is very simple in structure, but gives a good outline of the story of how Kukulkan gave chocolate to the Mayan people. As part of trying to develop a Mayan topic for the 2014 curriculum, I used this for a bit of up levelling work (with year 5) exploring how to turn the simple sentences into a more engaging narrative.

A simple version of the Mayan myth but entertaining for children. Have used it in school with my year 4 class and have also used it previously with 3 year. The basic language and sentence structure means that there is plenty for scope for work on improving it with more descriptive language and the illustrations are also brilliant for inspiration for writing pieces.

used this book to do a chocolate workshop with my daughter's class as part of there food and drink theme. really lovely story and helped make linksm with hostory. geography and allsorts. loved making the hot chocolate with them going from a whole bean to a ground etc too.

I bought this book for my 8yr old daughter who studied the ancient Mayans/history of cocoa at school. She loved it, and the teacher loved it so much she didn't only base a lot of their work around the book, but also got her own copy. They even had a chocolatier come in and make a chocolate tree with them!