A Dash of Trouble
Written by Anna Meriano

Publisher’s Summary:
Leonora Logrona discovers her sisters and mother are not just bakers but also witches and tries to prove herself as good as them by helping a friend.

Primary Source Pairing:
Leonora, or Leo, just wants to be part of the family and not be left out as the youngest or smallest or the not-quite-ready-est. Leo’s family has a bakery called Amor y Azúcar Panadería. Leo wants to help out but keeps getting told not yet. Through some poking around, she finds a magic spell cookbook and thinks she can prove her worth. The bakery is always busy, but as the story begins, the Logrona family is preparing for an especially busy time – the Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, celebration. For this primary source pairing, invite students to study an image of sugar skeletons and pan de hueso or bone bread made to celebrate Día de los Muertos. 

Questions for Discussion:

• Describe what you see.
• What do you notice first?
• Find something small but interesting.
• Make a connection to something you read in the book A Dash of Trouble.
• Consider how baked goods like the ones shown in the photograph play a role in the plot of the book.
• How is the setting of the family bakery, Amor y Azúcar Panadería, important in the story?

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
Small sugar skulls and “bone bread” made by a single bakery in Xochimilco, Mexico City, photograph by Copetevic, Wikimedia Commons.

Related Primary Source Pairing:
Funny Bones: Posada and his Day of the Dead Calaveras, Written and Illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh