Let me start by saying that in *my* opinion, The Pot that Juan Built is *not* a three-star book! This is a beautifully illustrated book, the colors are fantastic (especially when you live in the grey Pacific Northwest--we gotta take our sun wherever we can get it, even if that is off the pages of a book), and I loved the "this is the house that Jack built" style of the text. I also loved that a biography of Juan Quezada was on the facing page of each "This is the pot that Juan built" page. So we got two stories for the price of one! There is also an afterword in this book that discusses the history of the Mata Ortiz village, and a "gallery" showing how Juan Quezada makes his pots. This, in my opinion, is a four or five star book.Now. The children. Oh, those children... My nephew hated the book. He was very bothered by the "This is the house that Jack built" style of the text. It was annoying to him to the point that he asked me to stop reading it. I didn't, because he wasn't the only listener. My niece is the owner of the second set of ears. She liked the book, but wasn't *that* impressed with it. The "this is the pot that Juan built" story did not spark her interest in having me read Juan Quezada's biography to her. It was clear that the kids just weren't taken with this book, so they didn't get to hear Quezada's biography--I read it to myself. My niece would probably call this a two-star book.
So you know, this is probably just a "to each his own" kind of book. Maybe kids will either like it, or hate it. I wish the kids in my life were in the "like it" camp. As for me, I wish I could plaster my walls with the pages in this book. The colors and the sun would be really nice!