Book Fair

Last Saturday, Alejandro and I went to Chapultepec Park, Mexico City's largest and most famous park.

We entered the park through its main entrance.  In the background is the "Monument to the Boy Heroes", the teenage cadets who died in the Mexican American War.  Beyond that on the hill you can make out Chapultepec Castle.

Alejandro wanted to go to the 40th annual International Fair of Children's and Young People's Books which was being held in the park.

Frankly, it didn't sound that interesting to me.  When we arrived, it appeared that there were about a dozen stalls set up.  I thought to myself, "That's all there is?"  What I couldn't see at first was that the line of booths extended around the curve of the path for probably at least a half mile.

I ended up buying a number of books for Alejandro's nephew Ezra.  He is in his first year of "secundaria"... junior high school.  One of the books I bought for him was something that I read in school when I was in the seventh grade... "La Llamada de la Selva"... "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London.

There was also a stall selling cool 3-D jigsaw puzzles of famous landmarks.  I bought Ezra a puzzle of the Palace of Fine Arts.

We had to chuckle when we saw this children's book entitled "I Am Ale the Bear".  ("Ale" is a nickname for Alejandro.)

Remember "Reader's Digest"?  It still survives in Mexico, although I thought that it was defunct in the United States.  

 

In addition to booksellers, there were tents with activities for young people, and storytellers who were reading to the children.

This participant was dressed as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the most famous poet of colonial Mexico.  She was reciting poetry to the children.

There were also some musical performers.  This father - son duo was quite entertaining.

 These musicians performed the traditional music of the Huasteca region of Mexico.

The fair was a lot more interesting than I had expected.  It was late afternoon by the time we had walked the entire length of the exposition.  It was time to leave the park and go somewhere for dinner.