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Yippee! A picture book about Spanish Inquisition!


Nestof3
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http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Shofar-Barcelona-Jacqueline-Dembar/dp/0822599155/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251639211&sr=1-20#

 

Musician Don Fernando longs to hear the sounds of the shofar on the High Holidays, but, like the other secret Jews in Inquisition-era Spain, he must hide his religion. When he is asked to perform a symphony celebrating the new world, he and his son Rafael devise a daring plan to usher in the Jewish New Year in plain sight of the Spanish nobility!

 

 

Secret-Shofar-of-Barcelona2.jpg

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"yippee" and "the spanish inquisition" in the same subject line made me laugh, so thanks for the laugh and the book suggestion! I wasn't looking forward to cobbling something together on my own.

 

:iagree:

 

Yep, I was thinking along the lines of, "The Inquistion... what a show. The Inquisition... here we go." :lol:

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I was trying to get a better look inside and ran across the illustrator's blog. He shows more of the inside of the book than Amazon(at least the illustrations). It looks lovely.

 

Thanks, Yvette! I've asked my library to order it, but if it doesn't, I'll buy it. I am sure it will be a book many homeschoolers will want to borrow from our library, and they've ordered so much of what I've suggested so far.

 

I was honestly just so excited to find a book about this topic. I really try to find at least one extra book for each SOTW chapter, and we all love picture books here.

 

Remember, the Three Swords for Granada is also a great book which parallels the Catholic Spain's quest for power over Muslim Granada. We loved that book.

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Remember, the Three Swords for Granada is also a great book which parallels the Catholic Spain's quest for power over Muslim Granada. We loved that book.

 

No way! I bought this book at a library sale last year because I liked the cover. I had no idea what it's about. And this year is the right year to read it! Hurray!

 

Tara

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No way! I bought this book at a library sale last year because I liked the cover. I had no idea what it's about. And this year is the right year to read it! Hurray!

 

Tara

 

Very cool! You really will have to tell your children up front that the story is on a deeper level about Spain vs Granada. The Spanish dogs are called Fidorean Guards (hee hee), and there are so many plays on words in the story.

 

It takes place in 1420, prior to the eventual fall of Granada, so it's a little more positive. You can explain, and SOTW does this, that it fell in 1492 (easy to remember if you link it with Columbus). The real setting is Malaga, which is part of Granada.

 

It was ruled by the Visigoths, and then:

 

Málaga was one of the Iberian cities where Arab rule persisted the longest, having been part of the Emirate of Granada while most other part of the peninsula already succumbed to the reconquista, the medieval Christian Spanish struggled to drive the Muslim Arabs out. Málaga was conquered by Christian forces in 1487, five years before the fall of Granada.

 

 

The Battle of Granada was a siege of the city of Granada fought over a period of months leading up to its surrender on January 2, 1492. The city was captured by the combined forces of Aragon and Castile from the armies of the taifa Muslim Emirate of Granada. Granada's forces were led by Sultan Boabdil (Muhammed XII).

 

 

On a side note, Ibn Battuta traveled through Malaga (the location of the story). We also read a nice picture book,

 

You can see inside of it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Man-Journey-Battuta-1325-1354/dp/0618432337/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251725621&sr=8-3

 

The traveller Ibn Battuta, who passed through around 1325, characterised it as "one of the largest and most beautiful towns of Andalusia [uniting] the conveniences of both sea and land, and is abundantly supplied with foodstuffs and fruits". He praised its grapes, figs, and almonds; "its ruby-coloured Murcian pomegranates have no equal in the world." Another export good was "excellent gilded pottery". The town's mosque was large and beautiful, with "exceptionally tall orange trees" in its courtyard[1].
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Does the book correspond with a certain chapter of SOTW?

 

Tara

 

It is mentioned in SOTW V 2 CH 28. Susan chose not to actually include it, though there is mention of it at the bottom. I have chosen, though, to include it in our studies.

 

Granada is also mentioned in this chapter.

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