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COOL SALSA

Name: COOL SALSA
Author: Lori M. Carlson
ISBN: 0-8050-3135-9

BILINGUAL POEMS ON GROWING UP LATINO IN THE UNITED STATES

edited by Lori M. Carlson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1994

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The founder of the bilingual children's magazine Azul offers a collection of poetry by Gary Soto, Oscar Hijuelos (who also contributes an introduction) and other contemporary Latino writers from both the edges and the heartland of our country. Most, but not all, of the poems were written in English first; they appear here in the original, and also in translations: sometimes literal, sometimes free, sometimes by the poet, generally by another. Gathered by theme—``School Days,'' ``Hard Times,'' ``Time To Party,'' etc.—they express a wide range of experience and feeling in direct ways, from Gina ValdÇs's ironic ``English con Salsa'' (``Welcome to ESL 100, English Surely Latinized'') or Pat Mora's ``Mango Juice'' (``Eating mangoes/on a stick/is laughing/as gold juice/slides down/your chin...'') to Luis J. Rodr°guez's account of being beaten upon venturing into a white neighborhood to buy groceries (`` `Race' Politics''). Six of the poems here are truly bilingual, mixing languages in intriguing ways. In ``Why Do Men Wear Earrings on One Ear?'' Trinidad Sanchez Jr. exclaims: ``Sepa yo!/Maybe por costumbre, maybe porque es la moda/or they have made promesas...because la chica selling them was sooooo mamacita...'' Carlson assumes that most of her readers will be more comfortable in English; the English version of each poem comes first, and Spanish phrases are translated (``Sepa yo: How should I know?'') in an appended glossary. Poetry with a distinct flavor: a skillfully mixed appetizer for After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties (1992) and other larger collections. Biographical sketches. (Poetry. 10-up)

Pub Date: July 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-8050-3135-9

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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A YEAR DOWN YONDER

From the Grandma Dowdel series , Vol. 2

by Richard Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2000

Year-round fun.

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Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”

This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”

Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000

ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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THE BEST MAN
by Richard Peck

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THE MOUSE WITH THE QUESTION MARK TAIL
by Richard Peck ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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SECRETS AT SEA
by Richard Peck illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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A WEEK IN THE WOODS

by Andrew Clements ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2002

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Playing on his customary theme that children have more on the ball than adults give them credit for, Clements (Big Al and Shrimpy, p. 951, etc.) pairs a smart, unhappy, rich kid and a small-town teacher too quick to judge on appearances. Knowing that he’ll only be finishing up the term at the local public school near his new country home before hieing off to an exclusive academy, Mark makes no special effort to fit in, just sitting in class and staring moodily out the window. This rubs veteran science teacher Bill Maxwell the wrong way, big time, so that even after Mark realizes that he’s being a snot and tries to make amends, all he gets from Mr. Maxwell is the cold shoulder. Matters come to a head during a long-anticipated class camping trip; after Maxwell catches Mark with a forbidden knife (a camp mate’s, as it turns out) and lowers the boom, Mark storms off into the woods. Unaware that Mark is a well-prepared, enthusiastic (if inexperienced) hiker, Maxwell follows carelessly, sure that the “slacker” will be waiting for rescue around the next bend—and breaks his ankle running down a slope. Reconciliation ensues once he hobbles painfully into Mark’s neatly organized camp, and the two make their way back together. This might have some appeal to fans of Gary Paulsen’s or Will Hobbs’s more catastrophic survival tales, but because Clements pauses to explain—at length—everyone’s history, motives, feelings, and mindset, it reads more like a scenario (albeit an empowering one, at least for children) than a story. Worthy—but just as Maxwell underestimates his new student, so too does Clement underestimate his readers’ ability to figure out for themselves what’s going on in each character’s life and head. (Fiction. 10-12)