by Jorge Argueta (Author) Alfonso Ruano (Illustrator)
This powerful book by award-winning Salvadoran poet Jorge Argueta describes the terrible process that leads young people to undertake the extreme hardships and risks involved in the journey to what they hope will be a new life of safety and opportunity.
A refugee from El Salvador's war in the eighties, Argueta was born to explain the tragic choice confronting young Central Americans today who are saying goodbye to everything they know because they fear for their lives. This book brings home their situation and will help young people who are living in safety to understand those who are not.
Este poderoso libro del galardonado poeta salvadoreño Jorge Argueta describe el terrible proceso que lleva a los jóvenes a enfrentar las dificultades y los riesgos extremos que implica el viaje hacia lo que esperan sea una nueva vida de seguridad y oportunidades.
Refugiado de la guerra de El Salvador en los años ochenta, Argueta nació para explicar la trágica elección que enfrentan hoy los jóvenes centroamericanos que se despiden de todo lo que conocen porque temen por sus vidas. Este libro trae a casa su situación y ayudará a los jóvenes que viven seguros a comprender a los que no lo están.
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Gr 3-6--Argueta likens the spirit of refugee and immigrant children from Central America and Mexico to the movement of clouds in this collection of bilingual poetry. Some of these poems successfully evoke the fear and anxiety generated by this exodus from violence and privation. The portrayal of the tattooed Salvadoran gangs in "El barrio la campanera" is particularly visceral. But most of the poems skirt the edge of urgency, creating an emotional disconnect. Apprehension by the U.S. border patrol is a dreaded terror refugees pray to avoid. But the poem "Nos presentamos a la patrulla" ("We Introduce Ourselves to the Border Patrol") couches the nightmare in terms of an innocuous meet-and-greet. In an introductory poem, "Mi barrio," the author describes a rooster eating a Popsicle ("paleta"), but Ruano features the rooster with a lollipop--the alternate definition of the word. This misinterpretation disrupts the cyclical nature of the Popsicle motif carried forth into the concluding poem. Furthermore, the brutal march across the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts claims countless lives every year, but the image depicted implies that the crossing is nothing more onerous than a day hike. VERDICT Despite flaws, this is a much-needed jumping-off point for elementary classroom discussions of refugees and immigration.--Mary Margaret Mercado, Pima County Public Library, Tucson, AZ
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Poems written in Spanish and English poignantly address the struggles of child refugees fleeing Central America for the U.S. Shifting among the viewpoints of several children, the poems recount the sadness of leaving old lives behind and the dangers of the journey: "Don't let us fall/ into the hands of the migra, / and never in the hands of the traffickers," reads a prayer to Santo Toribio, "saint of the immigrants." Ruano's lush paintings feature surreal flourishes (a rooster in a track suit, tattooed gang members with cyclopean eyes) as well as haunting images of families crossing deserts and crowding onto trains. A sobering but hopeful collection. Ages 7-12. (Oct.)
Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.