Children with Tough Lives

Thanks to Sheila at Book Journeys It's Monday! What are you Reading? was started. For many kinds of books, check out Sheila's blog posts and links!

             Later, Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Ricki and Kellee at Unleashing Readers started another group with a children's focus.  Visit all the links for reading ideas!

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              Not as much time to read, plus I've been putting together a group of short stories for students, too, so fewer books this week, but they're good!  These books meet the challenge given by Latin@sIn KitLit. See the button on the right!

Libertad - written by Anna Fullerton 

           Someone recommended this book a few weeks ago and I got it, and finally read it. It is another verse novel, pairing well with Caminar by Skila Brown, which I also enjoyed. This time, the author starts the journey of the main character, Libertad, and his younger brother, Julio, living with their mother in a shack right by the Guatemala City garbage dump where they sift through the trash to find things to sell. Through happenstance, Libertad finds a marimba, which he repairs, and practices playing. This reminds him of his father, a musician, who has gone to America. They have one slip of paper with his phone number, but really no way to call, and of course, no money anyway to make a call. Through a tragic accident, their Mami is killed and they begin an even longer journey to the US, to find their father. The back matter speaks of so many children alone, fending for themselves, being attacked or burglarized for even the few coins they earn at the dump. And this too happens to the boys, although there are good moments and kindnesses from some people along the way, too. The story of those good things, and then the scarier moments, sometimes seems unrealistic to me, but I will rely on the author's note about her research in this serious plight of children in South America. It is not as frightening a story as others, and perhaps would be a good read aloud for middle grade students, to introduce them to another story of children in need. The poetry is clear prose, arranged for effect, often poignant, and sometimes startling in the content. For example, "Shoes": Julio sits on a bench/and swings his feet so the cool air/flows through the holes/our journey/has made in the soles/of his shoes." To include rhyme, and even a positive comment during this miles-long walk the boys are doing seems beautifully done to me.

Lights on the River - written by Jane Resh Thomas and illustrated by Michael Dooling

          This particular story tells some of the plight of the migrant worker, working hard, but living from crop to crop, as Teresa's mother says, "we carry our home on our backs." This time, we see the family members saying goodbye to their abuelita after a Christmas visit where they have made sand boats with candles lit, and floated them down river to join with the next village. Teresa is old enough to care for the babies while her parents, aunts and uncles pick the crops. They finish the cucumbers, and move on to the peaches, where they are shown their dwelling, an old, still stained, chicken coop. "Making do" appears to be what is expected, yet Michael Dooling's beautiful paintings show different emotions very well. It is a sweet story with undertones of sadness and resentment. I imagine it will gather questions about why the family think they should 'accept' the chicken coop, the kinds of work migrant workers do to help our economy, the issue today.  Dooling's paintings are gorgeous.

Still Reading: A Bird On Water Street - Elizabeth O. Dulemba

Next: I've been wanting to read Laura Resau's What The Moon Saw for a long time. 

         Nov. 30th was Mark Twain's birthday, who said: "A successful book is not made of what is in it, but of what is left out of it."