A young boy with two homelands and a delightful sense of wonder comes to life in Jorge Argueta's first collection of poems for children. Young Jorgito lives in San Francisco's Mission District, but he hasn't forgotten his native El Salvador. He recalls the volcanoes, the tasty cornmeal pupusas, and his grandmother's stories. As he changes from timid newcomer to seasoned city dweller, Jorgito's memories and new adventures form a patchwork of dreams -- the movie in his pillow -- that is perfectly suited to his new bicultural identity
My review:
This is the second book that I have read from this author and I like it just as much as I did the last one I read. The author writes this book completely in poetry. Each poem is short and in English but is coupled with the Spanish counterpart on each page, usually beside or underneath the English.
The words are as bold as the colorful pictures. All this describes his thoughts of being a young boy pulled suddenly from his home land of El Salvador. Only he and his Father came to the United States leaving behind his Mother, Grandmother, and younger siblings. His "movie" was really his dreams of those things that he left behind.
Eventually, the rest of his family joins him and he gets to show them his new life.
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At first the only thing that confused me was the connection of the "movie" and the entire book. This might confuse children as well. As I mention above, I eventually did get the connection.
At the bottom of some pages there were explanations for some words that did not translate into English. This was ok but in very tiny print and at times, hard to find. I think I would have liked to have seen those in the back of the book in the same bold font as used with the rest of the book.
I would recommend this book for bilingual children and families as well as people who want to learn either language. Overall though, this book still gets 5 stars from me.
Disclosure: I purchased this book for my own collection. The views expressed here are 100% my own and may differ with yours.
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