PICTURE BOOK BY PAT MORA
Yum! MmMm! !Que Rico! Americas' Sproutings
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mora, Pat. 2007. YUM! MmMm! QUE RICO! Ill. by Rafael Lopez. New York: Lee & Low Books, Inc. ISBN: 9781584302711.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
A collection of Haiku about fourteen different types of food from the Americas, with short, informational passages about each food.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This picture book contains brilliantly colored illustrations by the Mexican artist, Rafael Lopez. The spirited paintings will captivate a young audience. How could a child not be intrigued by the picture of a young boy on the back of a bluebird with a big bowl of blueberries in his arms; or a giant dancing peanut butter sandwich playing the trumpet. This book is celebratory and playful. And the colors are as delicious as the foods the Haiku describes. In the poem "Peanut," the aforementioned dancing sandwich is pictured with a smiling boy playing a conga drum: "Smear nutty butter,/then jelly. Gooey party,/my sandwich and me." The illustrations reflect the Mexican artistic tradition of the mural. The colors are bold, and there is a folkloric quality to them. In a note in the back of the book, Mora informs the reader, "I like diversity in people and poetry too." In deference to the original people of the America's she informs us that, "..these plants were grown and enjoyed by the peoples of the Americas long before Christopher Columbus or any other Europeans had ever tasted such wonderful foods." And in the informational paragraph on each page, she acknowledges many cultures and countries like Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and Native Americans.
The language is playful uses a few Spanish words. Mora stays true to the 5-7-5 syllabic structure of the Haiku. In the poem entitled, "Pumpkin,"she inserts a word in Spanish in a context that explains its meaning: "Under round luna,/scattered tumblings down the rows,/autumn's orange face."
This book is truly a celebration of variety, diversity and poetry.
4. BOOK REVIEWS
School Library Journal:"The art conveys an infectious sense of fun, as smiling suns and moons beam down upon happy children and animals, along with a trumpet-wielding peanut-butter sandwich and a dancing pineapple."
5. CONNECTIONS
This book would provide a fun way to introduce Haiku to a class. This book would work well as an art/poetry project, as well as a lesson in geography. In a food themed preschool story time, several of the poems could be read as a "poetry break."
NOVEL BY PAM MUNOZ RYAN1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ryan, Pam Munoz. 2000. ESPERANZA RISING. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 978043912041.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Esperanza and her parents live an idyllic life on a large ranch in Mexico. When her beloved father is killed by bandits, Esperanza and her mother need to escape from his corrupt and powerful stepbrothers. They must depend on their servants to get them across the border into California and help them begin a new life as farm workers.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Pam Munoz Ryan tackles many issues in this novel for middle grade readers, without compromising the flow of the story. It would be easy for a story that deals with class issues, racism, and labor struggles, to sound like a diatribe. But Ryan's plot is well-paced and engaging. It is easy to become sympathetic to the plight of young Esperanza whose story begins with a tender interaction between her and her Papi. Her father tells her that the "land is alive." He asks her, "Did you know that when you lie down on the land, you can feel it breathe?" In this first chapter her father shares his love for the land with Esperanza and this foreshadows a lifelong intimate relationship to the earth. Each chapter is titled a different crop, reflecting the rhythms of the growing season for various crops. The story begins with grapes, "Los Uvas," and ends years later at the start of the grape harvest. Ryan's interlingual use of Spanish in the text is natural, even though she follows the the spanish word or phrase with the English translation.
Esperanza does not transition smoothly from being a princess in her parent's world, to a Mexican laborer on the work farms of the San Joaquin Valley.She has a lot to learn about the struggle to survive in a country that is hostile toward Mexicans and other non-white people. Ryan creates poignant scenarios where Esperanza's awareness of the realities of racism hit home. In her relationship with the child, Isabel, who hopes to win the title of class queen, she realizes that Isabel, no matter how deserving of the title, will never win because she is Mexican. Her childhood friend Miguel drives the harsh reality home: " Americans see us as one big, brown group who are good for only manual labor."
Ryan explains in the back of the book that this story is based on her Grandmother's life who like Esperanza, was forced from her affluent, loving home in Mexico, to the harsh realities of life as a migrant farm worker.
Some may argue that the author is attempting to tackle too many issues in this short novel, but I think she raises awareness of the many historical and current issues that Mexican Americans have faced and continue to face in this country, and still manages to keep the story compelling and engaging. She also creates in Esperanza a multi-dimensional character whose inner and out experiences of her world seem authentic and true. Young readers who have ever experienced the tragedy of loss or the joy of familial love and acceptance will recognize a part of themselves in Esperanza's story.
4. BOOK REVIEWS
VOYA:"Details of existence at the migrant work camp, agricultural strikes and violence, discrimination, and the Mexican repatriation are realistic, based on historical facts in this readable, believable, and inspirational story."
Booklist: "But Ryan writes movingly in clear, poetic language that children will sink into, and the books offers excellent opportunities for discussion and curriculum support."
5. CONNECTIONS
This book would be a great choice for a 4th and 5th grade book discussion group. It would pair well with Julia Alvarez's book, Return to Sender.
Partly Cloudy, Poems of Love and Longing
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Soto, Gary. 2009. PARTLY CLOUDY: POEMS OF LOVE AND LONGING. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt. ISBN: 9780152063016.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
The poems in this collection are narrated by a girl and a boy. The first section are from a girl's perspective entitled, "A Girl's Tears, Her Songs," which are followed by poems from a boy's perspective, entitled, "A Boy's Body, His Words." And just as the book's title reads, these are poems about young love, young yearning for love.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The poems in this collection are written in free verse. Most are short, with only a few stanzas and do not rhyme. The cultural markers that might connect this book to the Latino culture do not exist, except for in one poem called "Barriers," where the narrator says: "Who will understand us?/Not your parents or mine,/As I'm Japanese/And you're Mexican." In most of the other poems, the author's background and culture is invisible, he or she could be any teen in some urban or in some rural environment. There is a richness missing from the lack of details about a particular culture, which my current immersion in multicultural literature has made me come to expect and long for.
Soto however does accomplish the sense of longing and expectation that I remember vividly feeling during my early teen years. The poem "First Kiss," is one that will take the adult reader back in time: "I haven't been kissed,/But I'm waiting./I'm a little scared/. Do I hold my breath,/Close my eyes, and peek when he/Leans in to me?/Do I lick my lips,/And offer my neck for the first one?..."
He writes as an insider if he has ever been a teenager new to love and romance.
4. REVIEWS
School Library Journal: "Soto skillfully captures the voice and emotions of young teens in love."
Booklist: "Young teens will enjoy the love sick puns and the metaphors, lyrical and sad, that show there is poetry in the way they speak."
5. CONNECTIONS
This book could be used as a prompt for love poems in a class room, along with other books of love poems like, The Rose that Grew from Concrete, by Tupac Shakur.
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