Thursday, July 31, 2008
Picture Book Review Discussion C: Portrayal of Latino/Latino Americans
Each member of the group must bring a picture book to share that will add to the conversation on the issues related to the article(s) to be discussed. Please post your review of your book in class. Indicate complete bibliographic information (title, date, author, publisher, genre) Give a brief, but engaging summary, provide an anlysis of the book as it relates to the discussion topic and as a piece of quality children's literature. Discuss the audience for whom it is attended and how it lends itself to the classroom.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
De La Pena, M. Mexican WhiteBoy
New York: Delacorte, 2008.
ISBN-10: 0385733100
ISBN-13: 9780385733106
Recommended Grade: From 10 to 12
If I were teaching in the sixth grade again, This is a novel I would definitely have my students read. I used to teach in East Hartford, in which the Mexican and Latino populations were quite high. The interest level for this “baseball, coming- of- age, finding identity story” would be very high. The great strength of the story is the relationship between Danny and Uno, two kids who start out as rivals and end up the best of friends. The author does an excellent job of telling each of their stories, of presenting them in a way that lets readers understand the issues they face, even though they may come from an entirely different background. The story is extremely entertaining and well-paced, often combining moments of laugh-out-loud comedy with traces of melancholy and even sadness.
Raised by his white mother but sent to live with his father's Mexican family for the summer, title character Danny is caught between two worlds and two identities. At his upscale prep school where he was cut from the baseball team - because, in spite of his powerful pitching arm, he tends to choke on the mound - he is a "lowly" Mexican. But here, in a poor Hispanic neighborhood, he's a white boy with a brilliant mind (though he rarely speaks it) and a bright future.
During his stay, Danny befriends Uno, whose father is black and whose mother is Mexican. Both boys long for their fathers. Danny's is supposedly in Mexico; Uno's is a few hours north in Oxnard. The two boys bond as they hustle other kids on the baseball field, wagering that Danny can strike them out, in order to raise money so Uno can go live with his father. From his relationship with his wisecracking cousin, Sophia (herself on the border between tomboy adolescence and full-fledged womanhood), to his clumsy courtship of a pretty Mexican girl, conspicuously and plausibly named Liberty, who barely speaks English (Danny only knows a few words of Spanish), Danny is a tried young man, defined differently by each encounter but unable to find a suitable definition for himself.
One of the most crucial thematic moments in "Mexican WhiteBoy," Matt de la Peña's new novel about a half-white, half-Mexican teenager struggling with his identity, happens when the father of his best friend, Uno, discusses poverty: "It's people who wander into your city, Uno. They the only ones who could see your life for what it is. National City, boy. Ain't but a forgotten slice of America's finest city. And you know what's on the tip of all y'all's tongues? Each and every one of y'all?"
The story ends with the end of summer, with new hopes on the horizon but nothing fully resolved. In that, De la Peña captures the bittersweet transience of youth. Everything lies ahead, and yet the heart yearns to hold on to the here and now. Whether you're a baseball fan or not, you'll enjoy the story of these two kids as they navigate the pitfalls of teenage life, coping with family issues.
Williams, A. (2005). Tiny Tortilla. New York: Dutton Children’s Books. ISBN:0525473823
Genre: Fantasy Picture Book Interlingual
Preschool-Grade 2
A hungry young boy, Juan Carlos, demonstrates patience as he pats his bit of masa until it becomes a hot, fresh, soft and airy tortilla. The old woman at the tortilla stand teaches him how to pat the masa between his palms and shape with a rhythmic beat as he sings a little song and counts an extra three pats: uno, dos tres. Each time he thinks the tortilla is ready to eat, it becomes a different fanciful object leaving him only a small bit of masa to pat once more. Spanish words are intermingled throughout the story which is set somewhere in the southwest. Some of the drawings appear to have a glaze washed background and some of the illustrations are inserted in designs found on southwestern pottery. We are introduced to some of the flora and fauna found in the area while the boy waits for the tortilla of his dreams.
My second grade students enjoyed the repeating pattern and the mix of Spanish words and phrases within the mostly English text. They were eager to figure out the pronunciation and meaning of the Spanish words. They enthusiastically joined in once they figured out the pattern.
The author, Arlene Williams, moved to the Mojave Desert when she was ten and now lives in northern Nevada. The desert setting of this story is in the American Southwest. The illustrator, G. Brian Karas also lived in the American Southwest for a number of years. The illustrations have yellow and brown tones with southwest pottery designs and an overlay of colored pencils. This book is a Junior Library Guild selection.
We infer that Juan Carlos, the protagonist, and the tortilla seller at the plaza are both Hispanic. They both infuse Spanish words and phrases with English while speaking. The tortilla seller at the plaza is an older woman who is depicted wearing a long black shawl and a colorful orange and white stripped dress. In Nilsson’s article she stated that Hispanic characters had been mostly omitted in picture books for young children during the 1970s and 1980s. Juan Carlos is a positive Hispanic role model. He demonstrates patience and perseverance even though he is young and hungry. He does not eat the tortilla until it is ready, even though he is tempted. The fact the he can speak both English and Spanish is valuable for students to see according to Christianson as mentioned in Nilsson’s article. It creates an understanding and appreciation of the ability to speak in two languages and creates an interest for children from Hispanic backgrounds to learn about their culture and also for those from other ethnic backgrounds. This story created an interest for my students. They wanted me to create a list of the Spanish words and the English translations and we are going to invite one student’s mom who is from Guatemala to teach us some additional Spanish words and tell us about growing up in Guatemala.
I can use this story with second grade students as a text that contains patterns and rhymes. It is a sequential story which lends itself to teaching retelling a story in sequence using story elements. The southwest setting will tie in with our study of American Indians from the southwest. The main character demonstrates patience. I used Juan Carlos as one of our characters to study when learning about character traits. We created a theory about Juan Carlos and used evidence from the text to support our theory.
Nilsson, N.L. (2005). How does Hispanic portrayal in children’s books measure up after 40 years? The answer is “It depends.” The Reading Teacher. 58(6) 534-548.
Williams, A. (2005). Tiny Tortilla. New York: Dutton Children’s Books.
Papá and Me
Written by Arthur Dorros
Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez
New York: Rayo/Harper Collins (2008)
IBSN: 0060581565
Recommended for preschool through grade 3
Papá and Me is a picture book about a day in the lives of a little boy and his father. Together they lovingly make breakfast, walk to the park, sing, splash in puddles and at the end of the afternoon take bus number forty-three to visit grandmother and grandfather, or Abuela and Abuelo. While the book is written primarily in English, it is peppered with Spanish words, followed by the English meaning: “ ‘¡Sabroso!’ Papá says it is so tasty.”
Arthur Dorros has authored numerous children’s books, including Julio’s Magic, a CLASP Américas Award Commended title. Papá and Me is a book that mirrors Dorros’ own life with his son, Alex. At one point, Dorros lived in Latin America where he learned Spanish, which he has since taught his son; Dorros reports that one of Alex’s first words was agua. Rudy Gutierrez, the illustrator of Papá and Me, has won awards for his artwork, including the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. He illustrated the ALA Notable Children’s Book, Malcolm X, and created the artwork for Santana’s CD Shaman. Gutierrez recalls the positive qualities of his own father that served as inspiration for his illustrations in Papá and Me. His drawings are sensitively rendered, revealing no stereotypical Hispanic images. Dad is modern and authentic, sporting a small hoop earring. The personal and cultural connections that both the author and illustrator bring to this story of the father and son bond make a simple picture book powerful and poetic.
The use of English and Spanish words in children’s texts has been examined in depth recently. Such studies include discussion of the bilingual text feature offered by Hispanic books like Papá and Me. Looking at such texts “from a linguistic perspective is a relatively new way to look at multicultural literature and holds great potential for uncovering ways to better serve the instructional needs of second-language and bilingual students” and that “linguistic features in texts may be useful resources for helping native-language students develop greater understandings of bilingual communities” (Nilsson). Unfortunately, these studies also reveal that “compared to the proportion of Hispanics who presently make up the United States population, there is indication that the relative proportion of Hispanic representation in children's literature has lost major ground.” In other words, there are not many children’s books like Papá and Me, making this an especially important picture book. On the other hand, the characters in Papá and Me appear to live in a city and take a bus, supporting the thesis regarding Hispanic children’s books that “characters in [these] books [do] not yet reflect Puerto Ricans'… improved …socioeconomic status and changes in geographic distribution” (Nilsson). Yet, Papá and Me breaks from the typical gender stereotyping so common in picture books, books that rarely portray nurturing father figures (Anderson & Hamilton); rather, every illustration in Papá and Me depicts a loving and demonstrative papá.
Dorros wrote this book for a very young audience – preschool through third grade – so the text is simple and literal. Yet he infuses such warmth and love, and combined with the bilingual feature results in poetry. It has a soft rhythm as father and son move gently through their day together, savoring sights and sounds and each other’s company. Gutierrez’s sunny, colorful illustrations move with and swirl around the text, with father and son always connected through hand holding or hugs, or through eye contact. I was particularly moved by this strong portrayal of the loving and demonstrative Latino father. I think it is an important, and possibly rare, book for this as well as its Latino cultural merit. After reading Nillson’s article, I was not surprised at the difficulty I experienced finding a recently published Latino children’s book in my local library. I suspect that in a less urban neighborhood, one would have even more difficulties.
Papá and Me is an obvious choice for use in early ELL classrooms given its bilingual English/Spanish feature. This book also can be employed, as noted in Nilsson’s article, as a vehicle for pre-service teachers who need to become better acquainted with Hispanic culture, although Papá and Me is limited for this use to some degree given the simplicity of text. As a middle school teacher, I am always looking for high quality picture books to use when teaching particular topics, genres, themes, literary elements or literary devices. I also like to use picture books as bridges to young adult novels. Papá and Me would work well as an introduction to either of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s novels, Esperanza Rising (a Pura Belpré Award winner) or Becoming Naomi Leon. In both novels, Ryan uses the bilingual feature of placing Spanish words in the context of English sentences.
Anderson, D. & Hamilton, M. (2005). Gender role stereotyping of parents in children’s picture books: the invisible father. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. 52(3-4), 145-151.
Dorros, A. (2008). Papá and Me. New York. Rayo/Harper Collins. IBSN: 0060581565
Nilsson, N.L. (2005). How does Hispanic portrayal in children's books measure up after 40 years? The answer is “it depends.” The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 534–548.
Ryan, P. M. (2002).Becoming Naomi Leon. New York. Scholastic. ISBN: 0439398851.
Ryan, P. M. (2002). Esperanza Rising. New York. Scholastic. ISBN: 0439269970.
Bernier-Grand, Carmen T. Cesar: Si, Se Puede! Yes, we can! New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2004. ISBN - 0761451722
Carmen T. Bernier-Grand and David Diaz have created a beautiful work of art explaining to children of all ages who Cesar Chavez was. The layout of the book begins with the birth of Chavez and works its way through his journey in becoming an outstanding spokesman for the people. The book is written in verse format and the illustrations that accompany the text were created in Photoshop and add color and vibrancy to the story. Cesar Chavez was American born whose family had to move from their home due to the Depression. His parents taught him to always follow God and do his best to remain clam in certain situations. This was helpful later in Cesar’s life when he began his fight for the rights of the migrant farm workers in California. The author is able to make the connections between the life Cesar lived and the lives he wished for others to live and create a beautiful biographical picture of this great man’s life.
When considering the book from a multicultural viewpoint, I find myself wondering if this would be one of those situations where being an insider isn’t necessary. This is a biography of a famous Mexican-American who accomplished great things. Do you need to be an insider to portray the facts of someone else’s life? I would have to say no at this point. Does it help to have that Hispanic background in order to seem authentic in your choice of topic? I have to say again, I don’t think so. The themes that are woven throughout this book are those of sacrifice, community, innovation and nonviolence and those are messages that can be spread no matter what ethnicity the writer is. Carmen is Puerto Rican so she is from Hispanic descent as is the illustrator, David Diaz. Together they did a wonderful job passing along the message of Cesar Chavez.
While reading this book, one of the first poems that stood out for me is called “Papa Chayo’s Rancho”. I think this poem really caught my attention because of the sad story behind it. Chavez’s family, after giving all the items in their family store away for free to their relatives during the Depression, moved to Papa Chayo’s ranch. The whole family worked to make money. They sold eggs for bread or balls of tin foil, swept out movie theatres, or picking walnuts, peas and apricots. They still lost the farm and the following describes what happened one day when the red tractor came to the farm:
“A red tractor came to the farm.
It’s motor blotted out
the sound of crickets and bullfrogs
and the buzzing of the flies.
It destroyed the trees
pushing them to the side
as if they were nothing.
My dad would never let us
carve our initials or do anything to those trees.” (pg. 14)
To work so hard to try and save the farm and then to lose it must have been so difficult for the whole family. I feel that this, like Revolution is not a dinner party, illustrates how people use certain incidents in their lives as a motivator to want to change society or to share with others their own struggles as a means of support through words and actions.
I recently sent away for a documentary on Cesar Chavez that was being given away for free to middle school teachers. I feel this book would be a wonderful addition to that documentary as it is non-fiction but in poetry form and I know that my students would enjoy it. Some websites my students might enjoy include a short biography on Chavez (http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/chavez) along with a more thorough biography at http://www.lasculturas.com/biographies/214-civil-rights/112-cesar-chavez. Another text to tie into this picture book would be Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. This is the story of a Mexican family that is forced from their home and makes their way to California to pick cotton during this same time period. Not only would the topic of the Depression be interesting to my students but the idea of social justice would work as well using the materials listed above.
I enjoyed the book and learned a lot about Cesar Chavez and all he accomplished for the migrant workers and grape pickers.
Rdg 667
Instructor: Dr. Kurkjian
Student: Laura Z. Angliss
Fall 2008
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach
A Cuban Folktale
Agra Deedy, Carmen. Martina the beautiful cockroach: A Cuban folktale. Atlanta,
Georgia: Peachtree Publications, 2007. ISBN9781561453993
Genre: Picture Book
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale
This old Cuban folktale is about Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha, a beautiful cockroach who had just turned 21 days old and is ready to give her leg in marriage. Her family lives in the lamp of a street light in old Havana. Martina’s household is very excited and every senora had something to offer Martina. But it is Martina’s abuela who gives her un consejo increible, some shocking advice. Abuela tells her that she is a beautiful cockroach and finding husbands to choose will be easy but picking the right one could be tricky. Her advice to Martina is that she should spill coffee on each suiter’s shoes to see how angry the suiter will become and how he will speak to Martina when he loses his temper. Abuela tells Martina the coffee test never fails. Even though Martina is not very sure of this strategy she takes her abuela’s advice. Much to her surprise it works every time! However, she turns away many suitors and is disappointed she can not find some who will make a good husband. With abuela’s help her eyes are turned to the garderner mouse who works in the flower basket hung below the street lamp. Abuela’s advice is to go down and talk to senor mouse and to just be herself as abuela goes to get more coffee. I don’t want to give away the ending but just want to say that Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha finds her true love but you must read the story yourself to find out why senor mouse is the right husband for Martina.
Booklist has spoken much more masterfully than I ever could in describing this orignially retold folktale:
"Deedy’s masterful retelling of this Latino folktale has a rollicking voice imbued with sly tongue-in-cheek humor. The acrylic illustrations, in a hyper-realistic style reminiscent of a softer William Joyce, are rendered in a vivid tropical palette. Shifting perspectives and points of view add vitality to the compositions, and facial expressions reveal both emotions and character traits. A scattering of Spanish words adds zest to this fine read-aloud."
The beautiful artwork is done by Michael Austin who has captured the warmth and beauty of old Havana and its natives. Carmen is a Cuban refuge whose family left Havana in 1963 after the Cuban Revolution. She grew up in Decatur, Georgia. There is also a Spanish version of Martina the Beautiful Cockroach. Martina is so popular she has her own website and both students and teachers will find the site interesting and informative if they visit www.beautifulmartina.com . Also on the site is a question and answer page where one can find how Carmen began to think about writing the retelling of Martina’s story. Carmen has been writing and telling stories for twenty years and has traveled around the world to share them with others. Most of what Carmen had written was in English but she was asked to tell some of her stories to an assembly of Spanish-speaking students in Georgia. She decided she would retell one of the stories by converting it to Spanish as she went along but before she could begin a large Palmetto bug flew across the stage over her head. One discovers that the name Palmetto bug is just a nice name for a cockroach. So began Martina’s story.
I found this story very entertaining and think it would make a wonderful edition to a classroom library more important in some classrooms than in others depending on the student body. However, in the 2nd grade classroom I taught, while there were no Spanish –speaking students, or students of Spanish decent my children did have a language lesson in Spanish every week. I think this story would make a terrific addition to this class and not necessarily if done by the Spanish teacher. It would be a great way for me to integrate Language Arts and language with an added bonus of using the computer room to visit Martina and Carmen Agra Deedy. It might even work as the seeds of a writing lesson on folktales after reading Carmen Agra Deedy’s answers to her writing and storytelling.
Alvarez, J. (2005). Un Regalo de Gracias. New York: Random House Publishing. ISBN 0-679-98003-2.
Un regalo de gracias by Julia Alvarez tells the legend of a patron saint (protector of the people) of the Dominican Republic. In this legend a young girl Maria is asked by her father what she would like him to bring back for her as a gift from his trip to the city. Maria tells her father that the only gift she wants is his return safely back home. Her father returns safely and with a basket of oranges given to him by one of the merchants for helping. She was astonished as she had never seen oranges before. After enjoying the oranges, she is saddened when her father tells her they will have to leave their land and go to the city because the land is not prospering as they had hoped. Later that evening while Maria was dreaming the “virgencita of Altagracia” comes to her in her dreams and tells her to plant the seeds of the orange. When she wakes the next morning she rushes out to tell her father about her dream and finds he was already in the fields planting orange seeds. From those seeds grew sprouts, branches and trunks. In a few months where tomato plants normally grew were fruit trees in abundance. The family prospers and sells the fruit in the city and does well. Her father again asked her what gift she would like for him to get her while in the city. Maria responds she wants him to find the lady in her dreams. After going into the city and having no luck the “virgencita of Altagracia” comes down from the sky and her picture is captured on a blanket that is spread near the fruit trees for protection. Maria holds the blanket on her arm and takes her wherever she goes.
Un regalo de gracias was written by Julia Alvarez who was born in New York but raised in the Dominican by her parents who are natives. Alvarez’s father joined in the plan to over throw the dictator Trujillo in the early 50’s. Her family was smuggled out of the Dominican Republic before Alvarez’s father was arrested or murdered. Upon her return to America she missed her family and homeland. Alvarez wrote Un regalo de gracias to tell the legend of the patron saint for the Dominicans however the book was illustrated by Beatriz Vidal, a native of Argentina. The book accurately reflects the Latino culture but may be representing more than one subgroup. The characters may accurately reflect the Latino culture however since there are several subgroups, and characteristics within each subgroup vary, it is difficult to accurately state whether the subgroup represented in the text are based on the Dominican people or Argentineans.
In addition this book is written in Spanish but has been translated into English.
As I was reading Un regalo de gracias, I tried to recall any stories passed down to me about patron saints in my culture. While I was raised Catholic, I had difficulty with this task. I was able to connect with the text linguistically for the most part. I am not completely fluent in Spanish in that I do not read and write in Spanish, however was able to phonetically sound the words out to read the text.
After reading this book, I feel this would be an appropriate book to use for English Language Learners. There is also a translated version of this book in English which can be used when discussing legends and then compared to other legends passed down from other cultures. The text is appropriate for all ages and grade levels.
Post a Comment