Module 3 Book Reviews

CANTO FAMILIAR

a. Bibliographic data

Nelson, Annika. 1995. CANTO FAMILIAR. by Gary Soto. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company. ISBN: 0152000674

b. Plot summary

CANTO FAMILIAR is a collection of twenty-five poems which the author refers to as songs. The poems are written in first person and address the normal everyday life and thoughts of a young Latino or Latina child. Illustrations accompany some, but not all of the poems. The descriptive poems contain both visual and auditory descriptions that allow the reader to easily visual and vicariously enter the life of the Hispanic child in each poem.

c. Critical analysis

The characters’ skin tones are varying shades brown. The characters have oval eyes and different styles of hair. Young girls wear their hair long in pigtails and braids. The mothers and teacher depicted in the poems wear their straight hair cut at varying lengths above the shoulders or pulled back in a bun. The boys’ hair styles are similar: short, wavy, and parted to the side. Their hair colors are varying shades of brown.

The facial features of most of the people are content with exception of the boy washing dishes in the poem, “Doing Dishes.” The characters in the story are slim and dressed in colorful clothes. The characters’ dresses, jumpers, shirts, pants, and skirts contain solid, deep colors such as purples, pinks, reds, blues, and yellows. The settings of many of the illustrations are inside a family’s kitchen. Other places include inside the living room or outside at a picnic.

The pictures add to the poems since many themes have to do with family, food, and celebrations. Food is an important part of a Hispanic family’s life. Papi’s Menudo is about a father enjoying a nice bowl of “menudo.” Many Hispanics savor their meals as portrayed in this poem. Papi, “dips sprinkles his menudo with onion,” “tears a piece of tortilla and dips it into his menudo,” and “slurps.”

The poems, “Christmas Angel” and “Tortilla’s Like Africa” illustrate a bond between siblings. An older sister breaks off a small part of a Christmas cookie and puts it in the mouth of her six-month-old little brother in order to share a Christmas tradition with him. In “Tortilla’s Like Africa” two brothers laughed as they made imperfect tortilla’s that were tasty, but not exactly like the tortillas their mom made. A young girl eats a large, slice of watermelon in the poem, “Sandia.”
The names of the characters are Spanish kinship terms: mami, papi, bebe, abuelito are used in the poems. The terms were not overused or translated, so they added to the Hispanic authenticity of the text. Also, characters have Hispanic names such as Enrique, Senor Cisneros, and Maria. Gary Soto successfully intersperses Spanish sentences and phrases in his poems without redundancy. In the poem, “Que hora es?” the poet mixes Spanish terms within the English text, but the reader can gather their meaning based on the context clues. The question, “What time is it?” is asked in Spanish in the second and fourth stanza and in English in the fifth stanza. In this collection of poems, the Spanish language adds to the authenticity of the poems.

I enjoyed these poems. Even though I did not grow up in a Hispanic family, I could relate to some of the common childhood concerns: pets, chores, siblings, teachers and family. I remember my childhood cat, Mittens, and his kitten antics, or the iron that spit and sputtered water on my clothes. Since some of the poems do not contain any illustrations, Spanish words, or Latino character names, the narrator could be of any race.

d. Review excerpts

From School Library Journal

Grade 3 Up? Who could imagine that such joyous rhythm could be found in the familiar moments of life, such as washing dishes or spotting a teacher in the market? In this companion volume to Neighborhood Odes (Harcourt, 1992), Soto not only imagines the musical beat, but also captures the energy and tranposes it into poetic songs. Imagery abounds, as in the hot iron that "snorts like a bull." Nelson's distinctive block prints bounce off white pages with vibrant magentas and bold blues outlined with thick black lines. The result is a harmony of words and pictures to be anticipated and savored. Although the landscape may be unfamiliar, readers are guided to this Mexican-American neighborhood, welcomed inside this home, and invited to share a child's thoughts about these universal experiences. Even with Spanish words woven throughout, the messages need no special interpretation to be understood. Pair this title with Soto's picture book Too Many Tamales (Putnam, 1993) or use it as an introduction to his novels for older readers. Read it, sing it, share it.
Sarabeth Kalajian, Venice Public Library, FL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. A companion to Soto's Neighborhood Odes (1992), this collection of simple free verse captures common childhood moments at home, at school, and in the street. Many of the experiences are Mexican American ("Spanish is seeing double" ), and occasional Spanish words are part of the easy, colloquial, short lines. The first-person voices are immediate, physical, and joyful, celebrating music, dancing, cats, friends, family. For example, it's weird and embarrassing to bump into your teacher at the supermarket. It's boring doing dishes. It's fun to eat while reading. The occasional full-page, richly colored woodcuts by Annika Nelson capture the child's imaginative take on ordinary things. This is a collection to read aloud and get kids writing about themselves. Hazel Rochman

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1995)
This humorous, tender collection of 25 poems and full-color linocuts about the daily life of Mexican-American children is a companion book to Soto's Neighborhood Odes (1992). Invoking ordinary domestic and community incidents, it's a fine introduction not only to poetry but to Chicano culture. In "Papi's Menudo," a father enjoys a favorite dish; the narrator of "Music for Fun and Profit" gets paid not to play an instrument; and "My Teacher in the Market" explores the amazement of a child upon seeing a teacher outside of class. The poems are generally descriptive rather than abstract, more concerned with communicating feelings than with literary style, and most are free verse, without regular cadence or rhyme scheme. Nelson debuts with scenes--homey, comfortable, bright--that make the book even more accessible. 1995, Harcourt Brace, $17.00. Starred Review. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
In this companion volume to the widely acclaimed 'Neighborhood Odes' (Harcourt), Soto continues his reveries in poems that illuminate the minutiae of everyday childhood experience. Some refer specifically to his own Mexican-American boyhood, while most describe moments that will spark recognition in any child. Accompanied by colorful illustrations, the poems are marked by short, point-blank phrasing and unrhymed vernacular. Category: Nonfiction. 1995, Harcourt, 79pp.. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. Connections

I read the poem, “My Teacher in the Market” to a class of fourth graders. They could relate to seeing their teachers at Walmart, Kohls, and Big Lots and feeling embarrassed. Some of the students admitted that they were playing in the store when they saw their classroom teacher. Two girls actually admitted hiding from their teacher when they saw her at the public library. They told me that they did not know what to say to her, so they just hide and watched her. The girls’ teacher eventually spotted them from across the room and waved.
Students may want to read more books written by Gary Soto. They could visit her author website: http://www.garysoto.com/.

I would challenge students to write their own poem about a common activity, person, or event in their daily lives. The teacher could work on a poem together with the class to model the writing process and build the students’ confidence in writing poetry. After the students publish their poems, then they should illustrate their poems.

Students may also enjoy reading another books of poetry such as CONFETTI: POEMS FOR CHILDREN by Pat Mora and illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez.

Carlson, Lori M., ed. Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States. Introduction by Oscar Hijuelos. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994. ISBN: o-805-03135-9.

Soto, Gary. A Fire in My Hands: A Book of Poems. Illustrated by James M. Cardillo. New York: Scholastic, 1990. ISBN: 0-590-45021-2.

Neighborhood Odes. Illustrated by David Diaz. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1992.ISBN: 0-15-256879-4.


TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY

a. Bibliographic data

Colon, Raul. 1997. TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY. by Pat Mora. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0-679-90401-8.
b. Brief plot summary

Tomás comes from a family of migrant workers. His grandfather told Tomas and his brother stories for years. However, one day when Tomas finished the end of the story for his grandfather, his grandfather told him it was time for him to learn some new stories to share with the family. Tomas went to the cool, comfortable library where the librarian helped him select interesting books. Tomas spent the hot days in the library drinking cool water, reading fascinating books, and letting his imagination wander.

c. Critical analysis with specific consideration of cultural markers for each book.
The scratch board illustrations show the family has the same brown skin tone. The “library lady” has a light cream color of skin in a muted tone. The boys have the same straight, brown hair that is combed and parted on the side. The grandpa has white hair and a white mustache. The mother’s hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of her neck.

The family looks happy throughout the story. Only Tomás expressions are pensive and sad as he leaves Texas in the beginning of the story and once again as he says good-bye to his friend, the Library Lady, in preparation to leave Iowa. The family’s love of storytelling and Papa Grade’s urging convinced Tomás to explore the public library and fill his mind with new stories that he could share with the family.The brothers wear shirts with collars, pants, and dressy casual shoes even when playing soccer. The story was a traditional story that portrayed a common theme in Hispanic literature: migrant workers. However, this family was not downtrodden. Even though Tomás and his family sleep on cots, drive a “tired, old car,” and look for iron and books at the city dump, his family has dignity. Those elements of the story are simply facts.

Tomás’s family values storytelling and reading. They entertain each other with stories and make the best of their situation. Tomás’s mother sews her sons a soccer ball from an old teddy bear. The teddy bear soccer ball helps make the story authentic to me. Many Latino boys love soccer and will play with any material of soccer ball as long as it rolls. As a child, my Argentine husband used to play with soccer balls made of old T-shirts held together with duct tape or taped balls of paper.

The setting takes place in both an urban and rural contexts. The family lived and worked on the farmland and drove on both country dirt roads and city roads as they traveled between Texas and Iowa. Tomás also went to the plain library and to the city dump with his family to look for books. The family’s mode of transportation was a “rusty car.” After looking at some old cars on the Internet, the car in the story looked like it was from the 1940s.
Spanish is mixed into the text. Terms of kinship such as the names of characters: Papa, mama, papa grande add a Hispanic flavor to the text. Both of the boys have Hispanic names: Tomas and Enrique. Tomás taught the Library Lady words in Spanish: libro, pájaro, and adios, and he would teach her words in English.

I thought it was usual that the librarian did not have a name. Since Tomás spent so much time in the library, I am sure he would have learned her name. Perhaps, the author wanted to downplay the importance of the librarian in order to avoid the “Anglo-savior” stereotypical theme. The librarian was simply called the “library lady.” When it was time to say good-bye, Tomás gave the library lady a gift of pan dulce.

After looking at different cars from that decade. I would place this store around the 1940s. Therefore I thought it was strange that the children only brought water to their parents working in the field. In the 1940s, the children from farms or low socioeconomic positions usually helped their parents by working alongside them in the field.

I thought this story was culturally authentic. The Spanish words, food, and actions of the characters (teddy bear soccer ball) prevent an illustrator from simply changing the race of the characters. Even though the theme of migrant workers is a common one, this story portrayed a strong, happy family of humble, honorable migrant workers. I liked that the family valued literacy and made the best of their situation. They did not have much money, but being poor did not define this family.

d. Review excerpts

From School Library JournalGrade 2-4? Tomas Rivera, who at his death in 1984 was the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, grew up in a migrant family. Here, Mora tells the fictionalized story of one summer in his childhood during which his love of books and reading is fostered by a librarian in Iowa, who takes him under her wing while his family works the harvest. She introduces him to stories about dinosaurs, horses, and American Indians and allows him to take books home where he shares them with his parents, grandfather, and brother. When it is time for the family to return to Texas, she gives Tomas the greatest gift of all?a book of his own to keep. Colon's earthy, sun-warmed colors, textured with swirling lines, add life to this biographical fragment and help portray Tomas's reading adventures in appealing ways. Stack this up with Sarah Stewart and David Small's The Library (Farrar, 1995) and Suzanne Williams and Steven Kellogg's Library Lil (Dial, 1997) to demonstrate the impact librarians can have on youngsters.?Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WICopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

e. Connections

Both the classroom teachers and I have encouraged the third, fourth, and fifth graders to visual the story as the read. Consequently, some students in a third grade class were eager to point out that Tomas was visualizing the stories as he read them since the illustrations showed Tomas seeing tigers and Native Americans.

Students may want to read more books written by Pat Mora. They could visit her author website: http://www.patmora.com/.

Students can read about a young African American boy’s struggle to borrow books from the library at a time it was illegal for him to check out books.

RICHARD WRIGHT AND THE LIBRARY CARD
by William Miller.

If students want to read a humorous book about a town that would rather watch TV instead of check out library books, then students can read LIBRARY LIL by Suzanne Williams.

Students may want to read more books about migrant workers.

FIRST DAY IN GRAPES / by L. King Perez ; illustrated by Robert Casilla.
LIGHTS ON A RIVER / Jane Resh Thomas ; illustrated by Michael Dooling.

Durbin, William. THE JOURNAL OF C.J. JACKSON : A DUST BOWL MIGRANT

Holyfield, John. THE HARD TIMES JAR. by Ethel Footman Smothers

Diaz, David. GOING HOME. by Eve Bunting.

Altman, Linda Jacobs. MIGRANT FARM WORKERS:THE TEMPORARY PEOPLE / Linda Jacobs

Diaz, David. CESAR: SI, SE PUEDE! = YES, WE CAN! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand.

Altman, Linda Jacobs. Amelia's Road. Illustrated by Enrique Sanchez. New York: Lee and Low Books, 1993. ISBN: 1-880000-04-0. 29 p. Grade K-2.

de Ruiz, Dana Catharine, and Richard Larios. La Causa: The Migrant Farmworkers' Story. Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez. Stories of America, Alex Haley, general editor. Austin: Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1993. ISBN: 0-8114-7231-0. 92 p. Grade 3-5.

Students can use the Britannica Online School Edition database to research Migrant Workers.
http://school.eb.com/elementary/article?articleId=353253&query=migrant%20workers&ct=


BEFORE WE WERE FREE

a. Bibliographic data

Alvarez, Julia. 2002. BEFORE WE WERE FREE. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0375915443.

b. Brief plot summary

Anita’s extended family members leave the family compound in the Dominican Republic to move to the United States. Anita later learns that her relatives left for their own safety. The Trujillo's dictatorship suppresses the freedoms of her family until an American embassy employee and his family comes to live with Anita’s family at the compound. Anita and her mother are the last members of her family to leave their country after her father and uncle’s failed attempt to overthrow the dictatorship.
c. Critical analysis

The only illustrations are the black and white cover of the book and two maps at the front of the book. The photograph of the front cover shows a young girl with long, straight hair looking out the screen of an open window of a simple cement house. The young girl has a sad, frustrated expression on her face and is resting her head in one hand. The girl had light colored skin in contrast with the blackness inside the house, but it is impossible to know the color of her skin since the photograph was taken in black and white.

One map at the being of the story show Anita’s family compound with a description of which family members lived in each house. Another map shows the Mancinis’s house with a description of each room. The reader is able to see the closet Anita and her mom lived in and the bathroom window from which they used to spy on their friends.

Even though Anita’s family lives on a large family compound, they are not wealthy. Her parents do not have money to send her sister, Lucinda, to the doctor when she has a bad rash on her neck. Anita wears Lucinda’s clothes to her quinceañera. The family does use a car to drive around town.

From the beginning of the story Spanish kinship terms such as tia, tio, papi, and mami are used. Spanish words are mixed throughout the novel. The dictator is referred to as El Jefe and the SIM are the “policía secreta.” The native Dominicans have Spanish names while the American children in the school have American names. Anita’s first crush, Sam, and his family from the United States also have American names.

Anita shows her limited understanding of English, when she’s confused at Sam’s remark of “something fishy” is going on after they discovered someone living in Tio Toni’s casita. Even though, Sam explained that the meaning of the expression is that “something strange is going on” Anita explains that there are a lot of fish on the compound. English idioms and expressions are difficult for second language learners; therefore, this mistake adds authenticity to the story.

Some themes in the story are strong family bonds, food, celebrations, and immigration. During the quinceañera, the young children listen to rock-and-roll and the older adults listen to cha-cha. The family supports each other in the Dominican Republic during the attempt to overthrow the dictator. Tio Toni hides out on the compound while Anita’s family keeps it a secret from the Washburn family. When Anita and her mother move to the America, they have the choice of living with her grandparents or moving in with the Garcias.

Since I’ve read novels and nonfiction books on the dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, I enjoyed reading this book. However, I did not like when the book changed styles, and I had to read the story from her diary. I realize that the author wanted to convey the chaos and uncertainty in Anita’s life; therefore, Anita’s choppy diary entries help portray her and her mother’s dire situation. This story depicts how children are not immune to the harsh conditions and cannot escape the stresses of dictatorships.

d. Review excerpts

From Publishers Weekly

In her first YA novel, Alvarez (How the Garc¡a Girls Lost Their Accents) proves as gifted at writing for adolescents as she is for adults. Here she brings her warmth, sensitivity and eye for detail to a volatile setting the Dominican Republic of her childhood, during the 1960-1961 attempt to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship. The story opens as 12-year-old narrator Anita watches her cousins, the Garc¡a girls, abruptly leave for the U.S. with their parents; Anita's own immediate family are now the only ones occupying the extended family's compound. Alvarez relays the terrors of the Trujillo regime in a muted but unmistakable tone; for a while, Anita's parents protect her (and, by extension, readers), both from the ruler's criminal and even murderous ways and also from knowledge of their involvement in the planned coup d'‚tat. The perspective remains securely Anita's, and Alvarez's pitch-perfect narration will immerse readers in Anita's world. Her crush on the American boy next door is at first as important as knowing that the maid is almost certainly working for the secret police and spying on them; later, as Anita understands the implications of the adult remarks she overhears, her voice becomes anxious and the tension mounts. When the revolution fails, Anita's father and uncle are immediately arrested, and she and her mother go underground, living in secret in their friends' bedroom closet a sequence the author renders with palpable suspense. Alvarez conveys the hopeful ending with as much passion as suffuses the tragedies that precede it. A stirring work of art. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 12))
A 12-year-old girl bears witness to the Dominican Revolution of 1961 in a powerful first-person narrative. The story opens as Anita's cousins (the Garcia girls of Alvarez's 1991 adult debut, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents), hurriedly pack to leave the country. This signals the end of childhood innocence for Anita. In short succession, her family finds the secret police parked in their driveway; the American consul moves in next door; and her older sister Lucinda is packed off to join her cousins in New York after she attracts the unwelcome attention of El Jefe Trujillo, the country's dictator. Anita's family, it seems, is intimately involved with the political resistance to Trujillo, and she, perforce, is drawn into the emotional maelstrom. The present-tense narrative lends the story a gripping immediacy, as Anita moves from the healthy, self-absorbed naïveté of early adolescence to a prematurely aged understanding of the world's brutality. Her entree into puberty goes hand in hand with her entree into this adult world of terror: "I don't want to be a se-orita now that I know what El Jefe does to se-oritas." According to an author's note, Alvarez (How T'a Lola Came to Visit Stay, 2001, etc.) drew upon the experiences of family members who stayed behind in the Dominican Republic during this period of political upheaval, crafting a story that, in its matter-of-fact detailing of the increasingly surreal world surrounding Anita, feels almost realer than life. The power of the narrative is weakened somewhat by the insertion of Anita's diary entries as she and her mother take shelter in the Italian Embassy after her father's arrest. The first-person, present-tense construction of the diary entries are not different enough from the main narrative to make them come alive as such; instead, the artifice draws attention to itself, creating a distraction. This is a minor quibble with a story that imagines so clearly for American readers the travails of all-too-many Latin nations then and now. 2002, Knopf, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 14. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Aug. 1, 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 22))What is it like for a 12-year-old girl living under a ruthless dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960? Alvarez draws on her own cousins' and friends' experiences to tell the political story through the eyes of Anita, whose father is involved in a plot to assassinate the dictator and bring democracy to the island. This doesn't have the passionate lyricism of Alvarez's great adult novels. The pace, at least for the first half of the book, is very slow, perhaps because the first-person, present-tense narrative stays true to Anita's bewildered viewpoint and is weighed down with daily detail and explanation of the political issues ("I feel just awful that my father has to kill someone for us to be free"). Yet it is Anita's innocence, her focus on the ordinary, that young readers will recognize. She's busy with school, friends, getting her period, falling in love, even as the secrets and spies come closer and, finally, the terror destroys her home. Her father is arrested; she and her mother are in hiding. There's no sensationalism, but Anita knows the horrific facts of how prisoners are tortured and killed. Trying to block out the truth, she loses her voice, even forgets the words for things, until she starts to write in a secret diary. Readers interested in the history will grab this. Like Lyll Becerra de Jenkins' The Honorable Prison (1988), about a young girl whose father resists a Latin American dictatorship, and Beverley Naidoo's The Other Side of Truth (Booklist's 2001 Top of the List winner for youth fiction), Alvarez's story will also spark intense discussion about politics and family. Category: Books for Older Readers--Fiction. 2002, Knopf, $15.95, $17.99. Gr. 7-10.
e. Connections

Students may want to read more books written by Julia Alvarez. They could visit her author website: http://www.juliaalvarez.com/books/.

If students want to read another book about a young girl that must leave her country without her father due to tragic circumstances and assimilate to the American culture, then they could read ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Munoz Ryan.

Students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD could use the CultureGrams (www.online.culturegrams.com) website to learn more about the history and people of the Dominican Republic and The Trujillo Dictatorship.

Students could be asked to discuss if Anita was old enough to understand the political situation of her country. Students could be asked how a dictator differs from a president and could this story have taken place in another country.