The flower girl at a Mexican-American wedding describes all the highlights of the event--from her perspective. We notice the yawning altar boy with dirty tennis shoes and Uncle Juan in his itchy new suit during the ceremony. At the banquet, we see how perfectly black olives fit onto each of the narrator's fingertips. Gary Soto aptly captures the child's view of an adult occasion. Stephanie Garcia's distinctive three-dimensional illustrations are equally appealing. Each one uses human figures sculpted in clay, painted and dressed in clothes made from fabric, and placed in small boxes that have been created to look like stage sets. The overall effect is a pleasing mixture of fantasy and reality, rather like a real wedding ceremony. (Ages 4-8)

"There's nothing like a wedding, and this book about a wedding is not quite like any other. . . . Maya, the flower girl, is the lens through which the action is seen. All of the fun of a wedding is here: the altar boy with the dirty sneakers under his gown, Maya putting pitted black olives on each of her fingers, the kids whacking each other with balloons. . . . The choice of three dimensional artwork was inspired".--"Booklist", starred review. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.