Mario is a boy that is fascinated with the mayan culture and when he goes to his room to sleep, his dreams take him on an adventure that he will never forget. He sees and hears animals and sees a wall of mayan ancestors. Waking up he realizes that it was only a dream and that he will make paintings of what he saw so he won't forget.

This would be a good book to use in a lower level elementary classroom to introduce Mayan culture and civilization. It is a short story with beautiful pictures. It really builds off of a child's imagination. Mario meets two friends while in "Mayan time" and they speak in Spanish to him. Each page contains a short phrase in Spanish, which can easily be incorporated into a lesson. The book ends with Mario painting his memories, this gives me lots of good ideas for a transition activity into the lesson. I rated this book a 3 out of 5 because the book is short and does not contain any hard information; however, younger students could easily relate to it. It brings the idea of Mayan culture to their developmental level. ( )