This unit was created as a result of a summer institute sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The Center's goal is to improve student learning of foreign languages in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). To this end, the Center provides professional support for foreign language educators through ongoing research projects, publications, and national summer institutes. In the summer of 1996, the Center offered the Culture and Children's Literature Institute of France and Mexico. Forty participants (20 teachers of French and 20 of Spanish) were selected from applicants across the nation to participate in the 10-day institute. This institute focused on effective strategies for the development and teaching of thematic curriculum units based on cultural knowledge and children's literature of France and Mexico. This book is based on the children's book, "La mujer que brillaba aun mas que el sol." "La mujer que brillaba aun mas que el sol" ("The Woman Who Outshone the Sun"), from a poem by Alejandro Cruz Martinez, is a lyrical story from ancient Mexico that tells of a beautiful woman, Lucia Zenteno, who arrives in a village with an iguana at her side, her hair so glorious it outshines the sun. This unit not only beautifully demonstrates how to use children's literature to teach Spanish, but clarifies how language, content, and culture can be integrated in lessons that actively involve students in language learning. As teachers explore this unit, they will discover the joy of using children's literature as the basis for the thematic teaching of history, culture, and language in their curriculum. Teaching Tolerance in the Foreign Language Classroom: A Personal Reflection by Boni Luna is appended.