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Mora, P. 1996. Confetti: Poems for Children. New York: Lee & Low Books Inc.
ISBN: 1-880000-25-3
Confetti is a collection of high spirited poems centering around a Mexican American girl living in the Southwest.
The illustrator, Enrique O. Sanchez, uses acrylic to convey dreamlike pictures in vivid colors. The pictures capture Southwestern
culture by including cacti, geometric shapes, Mexican pastries, confetti, pinata, and pottery.
The author, Pat Mora, was born in El Paso, Texas. Pat’s grandparents came from Mexico into the United States during
the Mexican Revolution. Growing up, Pat spoke Spanish at home and English in school. In her book Confetti, Pat uses
narrative poems in free verse where Spanish is intermingled in poems that are written in English. She sometimes substitutes
a Spanish word for English, "Oh, I see the caballitos that race in the wind". In other poems, the Spanish is repeated by the
same thing in English, "I say yo soy libre, I am free, free, free, free as confetti". There is a glossary of the Spanish words
on the last page of the book.
This is a great book for read outlouds and poetry breaks in the lower elementary classrooms. Through the poems and pictures
in this book, the teacher can bring the authentic culture of the Southwest into the classroom.
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Soto, G. 1995. Canto Familiar. San Diego: Harcourt.
ISBN: 0-15-2000067-4
Soto, G. 1995. Canto
Familiar. San Diego:
Harcourt.
ISBN: 0-15-2000067-4
Canto Familiar is a collection of twenty five poems that celebrate and share the hardships of growing up as a Mexican-American
child. The author Gary Soto, brings authenticity into this book with his own experiences of growing up as a Mexican American.
Soto uses first person narrative poetry that includes mostly English with some interlingual use of Spanish. Soto includes
themes that are common in Mexican American literature such as holidays, foods, school, and family. Some of the cultural words
used in his poems are "abuelo", "senora", "ay, dios", "por favor", "bebe", and "tripas". Soto uses humor in his poems by the
child being bored with washing dishes to meeting their teacher in the grocery store. The poems are written on glossy paper
with an occasional full page woodcut illustration by Annika Nelson. Nelson uses deep colors with black borders on her illustrations.
Nelson includes cultural specific animals, skin color, and foods to add authenticity to this book.
There are too many good poems to pick a favorite. The topics that would make the child smile and relate to are putting
a shoe on the wrong foot, losing eyeglasses, seeing their teacher in the market, doing chores, and pets. With the vivid woodcut
illustrations and Soto’s realistic topics of his poems, this is a book that elementary children should read.
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Martinez, V. 1996. Parrot in the Oven. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.
ISBN: 0-06-026706-2
Parrot in the Oven centers around Manuel Hernandez’s poor Mexican American family that includes an alcoholic
father. Manuel’s nickname is Manny and he encounters gang initiation, death in the family, teen pregnancy, racism, and
domestic violence. Manny talks about how his father does not speak very good English; "Instead of saying "watch", he’d
say "wash", and for "stupid", he’d slip in a bit of Spanish, "es-tupid." (p. 5)
Victor Martinez, the author of Parrot in the Oven, uses interlingual use of Spanish in many places in this book
to give a feeling of authenticity. Manny’s brother’s name is Bernardo, his sisters’ names are Magda and
Pedi. Manny’s mother calls the children "mija" in her conversational language and his friends use "ese" in their casual
speech. Manny explains that his father calls him "perico" which is parrot in Spanish: "Perico, or parrot, was what Dad called
me sometimes. It was from a Mexican saying about a parrot that complains how hot it is in the shade, while all along he’s
sitting inside an oven." (p.51) When Manny’s grandmother dies, the mother makes bunuelos, a Mexican sweet bread, for
the family. As the father takes a shower, the children would always listen to a Mexican ballad that he sang.
This book does include curse words in Spanish and English. In chapter nine, Manny’s older siblings make fun of him
liking a white girl because she is not Mexican American.
Victor Martinez uses some beautiful descriptive sentences throughout the book to explain Manny’s environment. "When
I neared the pharmacy, the sun was knifing a big blue hand through the ghosts of fog, sweeping them away like cobwebs." (p.
160)
Victor Martinez is a Mexican American author that grew up in Fresno, California. Parrot in the Oven is the 1998
medal winner of the Pura Belpre Award and is a National Book Award winner. Due to the controversial topics in this book (language,
racism, domestic violence, gang activity, pregnancy) this book should be read by upper middle to high school with an adult
to discuss these issues with the reader.
READ!READ!READ!
Book covers on this web site are from Barnes and Noble's website at www.bn.com.
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