Award-winning author-illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh sheds light on the significance of Aztec manuscripts and cultureOur 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 tell the story of their people’s way of life, documenting their history, science, tributes, and sacred rituals.Duncan Tonatiuh’s lyrical prose and beloved illustration style, inspired by the pre-Columbian codices, tell the story of how―contrary to the historical narrative that European colon
