# A Land of Books

**Author:** Duncan Tonatiuh
**Grade range:** Grades K–5
**First published:** 2022
**Page count:** 52
**Genre:** Picture Book
**ISBN-13:** `9781647008550`
**ISBN-10:** `1647008557`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/a-land-of-books-dreams-of-young-mexihcah-word-painters
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Award-winning author-illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh sheds light on the significance of Aztec manuscripts and culture in his picture book A Land of Books. A 2023 Pura Belpré Youth Illustration Honor Book Our world, little brother, is an amoxtlalpan, a land of books. In the jungles where the jaguar dwells, the Mayas make books. In the mountains the cloud people, the Mixtecs, make them as well. So do others in the coast and in the forests. And we the Mexica of the mighty Aztec empire, who dwell in the valley of the volcanoes, make them too. A young Aztec girl tells her little brother how their parents create beautiful painted manuscripts, or codices. She explains to him how paper is made from local plants and how the long paper is folded into a book. Her parents and others paint the codices to t

## Where this book is assigned

### Pura Belpré Illustrator Award

- **recommended** · Kindergarten grade — [source: Pura Belpré Illustrator Award (ALA/ALSC + REFORMA), via Wikipedia — 2023 Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Belpr%C3%A9_Award)
- **recommended** · 1st grade — [source: Pura Belpré Illustrator Award (ALA/ALSC + REFORMA), via Wikipedia — 2023 Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Belpr%C3%A9_Award)
- **recommended** · 2nd grade — [source: Pura Belpré Illustrator Award (ALA/ALSC + REFORMA), via Wikipedia — 2023 Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Belpr%C3%A9_Award)
- **recommended** · 3rd grade — [source: Pura Belpré Illustrator Award (ALA/ALSC + REFORMA), via Wikipedia — 2023 Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Belpr%C3%A9_Award)
- **recommended** · 4th grade — [source: Pura Belpré Illustrator Award (ALA/ALSC + REFORMA), via Wikipedia — 2023 Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Belpr%C3%A9_Award)
- **recommended** · 5th grade — [source: Pura Belpré Illustrator Award (ALA/ALSC + REFORMA), via Wikipedia — 2023 Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Belpr%C3%A9_Award)

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