Using Children's Nonfiction For Research - See Inside an Aztec Town

For an author, especially when faced with a deadline, a great source for information about nearly everything is the kids non-fiction section in the library. When I was writing my novel, The Jaguar Princess (Tor Books 1993) about ancient Aztec Mexico, I stumbled upon a fantastic reference. See Inside An Aztec Town by Cottie Burland, edited by Adrian Singleton is part of the See Inside series of illustrated kid's picture books, with series editor R. J. Unstead and first published by Hutchinson and Co., Great Britain in 1980, reprinted by Warwick Press in the US.

In a spare but densely-packed 28 pages, See Inside an Aztec Town thoroughly immerses the reader in the exciting and exotic details of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization. Illustrators Charlotte Snook, Maurice Wilson, Ron Jobson, and Rob McCaig do a stunning job of reviving and recreating the Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlan. The painting of Tlatelolco Market, and the accompanying text inspired an early scene in Jaguar Princess where my little heroine, the Olmec slave-girl Mixcatl, escapes from the selling block and runs amuck through the marketplace.

The description of the calmecac, or school for noble boys, and the intriguing details involving the instruction, treatment and often punishment of its students led me to set a large part of my story within its walls. Mixcatl is not a student there; she begins as a slave, emptying slop jars from the student's rooms. However, it is in the calmecac that her talent as a scribe and a glyph-painter emerges, as well as another and more sinister ability. More wonderful illustrations inspired scenes in the Temple Precinct, outside the Royal Palace and on the boats that plied the numerous canals within the city.

Even the fore- and end-papers, with their wonderful array of Aztec glyphs, helped inspire Mixcatl's profession and gifts.

This was not the only reference I used for the novel, but it had a special spark that helped me recreate the Aztec city through the eyes of a captured slave girl. It led me to other, more detailed references,

Reviews and reader comments of Jaguar Princess have mentioned the richly detailed background of Tenochtilan. Some suggested (half-jokingly) that perhaps I had managed to teleport back in time and space. Yes, in a way I did, and the time-portal was a children's picture book.

CB