“Federico and the Magi’s Gift” is subtitled, “A Latin American Christmas Story.”
It is the fifth of January, and everyone has gathered to celebrate the end of the Christmas season. They are floating balloons up into the sky and laughing.
But Federico isn’t laughing. He’s sitting on the porch, watching everyone else. His mind is on something else – it’s the twelfth night since Christmas, the night of Los Tres Reyes Magos, the three wise men. Tonight they would ride through the sky again as they had every year since Christ’s birth, and if Federico was careful, he might be able to see them in the stars. He was worried, though – he’d been misbehaving lately and he was worried that the wise men would not leave him a present in his shoes.
His father told him that maybe, if he promised he’d be extra good that year, the three wise men would give him a gift anyway. Federico badly wanted a toy horse, so his father helped him write a letter, asking for the gift.
The children went to bed, leaving their shoes on the windowsill, and soon everyone was asleep but Federico. He worried that his letter had been written too late. Would he wake up and find that no present had been left for him?
He decided to go out into the garden and look up into the night sky. Maybe he would be able to see the wise men as they came. He saw all the constellations – and then, he saw them, riding across the sky, and one of them was carrying a toy horse!
He had to hurry – if he wasn’t in his bed, he wouldn’t get a gift. He raced back to the house and climbed into bed, suddenly feeling very, very sleepy as he lay down, closed his eyes, and continued to dream.
(This book was published in 2004 by Alfred A. Knopf and was illustrated by the author.)
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