Books published by publisher University of Papua New Guinea Press

Sisters in Blue tells the story of two young women--one Spanish, one Puebloan--meeting across space and time. Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, New Mexico's famous Lady in Blue, is said to have traveled to New Mexico in the seventeenth century. Here Anna M. Nogar and Enrique R. Lamadrid bring her to life, imagining an encounter between a Pueblo woman and Sor María during the nun's mystical spiritual journeys. Tales of Sor María, who described traveling across the earth and the heavens, have traditionally presented her as an evangelist who helped bring Catholicism to the Pueblos. Instead this book, which includes an essay providing historical context, shows a connection between Sor María and her friend Paf Sheuri. The two women find more similarities than differences in their shared experiences, and what they learn from each other has an impact for centuries to come.

This popular fourth-grade-level textbook introduces the young reader to New Mexico's past and present, beginning with its geography and covering the changes in the state's culture, society, and economy from earliest times and until the present. Mindful that the student reading this book is probably learning about New Mexico history for the first time, this volume's abundant illustrations and engaging text will spark and sustain readers' interest. New Mexico has been continuously settled for over 10,000 years, and this book is centered on the various cultural traditions contributed and blended over time by many groups of people. When students finish the book, they will better understand how different cultures shaped the way we live today as well as know major events and key people in New Mexico's development. A separate teachers guide, complete with lesson plans and instructional suggestions as well as student activities and exercises, is also available. If twenty or more copies of New Mexico! are purchased, one copy of the teachers guide is free. (Call for more information.)

New Mexico's master storyteller creates a southwestern version of the Arabian Nights in this fable set in seventeenth-century Santa Fe. In January 1680 a dozen Pueblo Indians are charged with conspiring to incite a revolution against the colonial government. When the prisoners are brought before the Governor, one of them is revealed as a young woman. Educated by the friars in her pueblo's mission church, Serafina speaks beautiful Spanish and surprises the Governor with her fearlessness and intelligence.The two strike a bargain. She will entertain the Governor by telling him a story. If he likes her story, he will free one of the prisoners. Like Scheherezade, who prevented her royal husband from killing her by telling him stories, Serafina keeps the Governor so entertained with her versions of Nuevo Mexicano cuentos that he spares the lives of all her fellow prisoners.Some of the stories Serafina tells will have a familiar ring to them, for they came from Europe and were New Mexicanized by the Spanish colonists. Some have Pueblo Indian plots and characters--and it is this blending of the two cultures that is Anaya's true subject.

The crisp September evening in Santa Fe is going to be special. It's the annual burning of Old Man Gloom or Zozobra.* He stands across the large park where thousands of people gather--a fifty-foot sourpuss puppet whose gaping mouth and neon eyes make him appear dismal, which is his job. When Zozobra burns into smoldering ash, so, too, will people's gloomy thoughts disappear--or so everyone hopes.As with any spectacle worthy of the name, the lights, music, fireworks, and sense of frenzied expectation make the experience unforgettable--and this book vividly documents the evening. It takes us behind the scenes to the days and weeks before, where we see the construction of Zozobra. We get to go along to the practices of the Gloomies--those select few eight- and nine-year-old boys and girls who perform a dance as ghosts around Zozobra just before he burns.Most importantly we are given the best seat in the park to watch the burning of Zozobra. We see Zozobra move, hear his protest at his coming fate, watch in wonder, fear, and joy as first the Fire Dancers and then the Gloomies and the Queen of Gloom fulfill their appointed tasks in the ceremony. And suddenly shouts of "Burn him! Burn him!! Burn him!!!" catch us in their frenzy, and we, too, join the chant.This book is the perfect companion for anyone who has seen Zozobra burn or hopes to, and it is also a skillful way to introduce children to how we recognize and deal with worries and woes.*Zobobra name and image are copyrighted by the Santa Fe Downtown Kiwanis Club.