Growing Minds Through Reading

  Listen to Acevedo read the opening of her book Clap When You Land .  BIBLIOGRAPHY Acevedo, Elizabeth. CLAP WHEN YOU LAND. New York: Harper Teen, 2020. ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9. PLOT SUMMARY :  Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic.  Yahaira Rios lives in New York.  One summer day, when Camino is waiting for her father to visit her, the unexpected happens.  The plane he was on crashes.  Without knowing that the other one exists, their lives will be forever changed.  As both girls try to understand their father’s secrets, they go through an emotional rollercoaster as they face life with a new sister and without their father.  ANALYSIS:   Camino is a sixteen-year-old who lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic.  She always looks forward to the summers when her father visits her.  Thanks to the money that her father sends her aunt, Camino and her aunt can have some commodities that not everyone in their neighborh...

After twenty years published, watch Pam Munoz Ryan answer questions on Esperanza Rising on an author fan face-off.  Will she answer correctly? BIBLIOGRAPHY Mu ñ oz Ryan, Pam. ESPERANZA RISING. New York: Little, Scholastic, 2000. ISBN: 0-439-12042-X. PLOT SUMMARY:  Esperanza lives a wonderful life with her parents and grandmother at their ranch in Aguascalientes, M é xico.  Things change when a tragedy strikes the family.  Under the new circumstances, Esperanza and her mother have no option but to run away to California leaving her grandmother behind.  In California, Esperanza struggles to adapt to her new living conditions at a camp for Mexican workers.  Esperanza finds that she must overcome the many obstacles she is facing in her new life and rise to the occasion when her mother gets very sick.  NALYSIS:   At her young age of thirteen years old, Esperanza goes through changes in her life that make her have a different outlook in life....

  BIBLIOGRAPHY Medina, Meg and Sonia S á nchez. EVELYN DEL REY IS MOVING AWAY.  Massachusetts: Candlewick 2020.   ISBN: 978-1-5362-0704-D. PLOT SUMMARY: Evelyn and Daniela are best friends who live close to each other.  They have many things in common including their almost twin apartments.  For one last time, the girls play together like if it were any regular day.  Evelyn del Rey is moving away, and the girls promise to visit and keep in touch.  Will their friendship be everlasting?  ANALYSIS : Even though it is a sad day for both girls, they keep a positive outlook by enjoying their last day together. They play, smile and keep each other company until the last minute.  Their love for each other is evident as they promise to keep in touch and seal that promise with a sparkly heart sticker on their cheeks.   SETTING: The setting where Daniela and Evelyn live shows how diverse their neighborhood is.  As they are pla...

  Listen to author and illustrator, Yuyi Morales read Niño Wrestles the World . BIBLIOGRAPHY Morales, Yuyi. NI ÑO WRESTLES THE WORLD . New York: Roaring Book Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-59643-604-6. PLOT SUMMARY:  While his sisters are asleep, Ni ñ o uses his imagination to wrestle a group of well-known monsters.  With his great moves he defeats all of them.  When the time has come for his sisters to wake up, there is nothing left for Ni ñ o but to wrestle them too.  His hermanitas are ruthless and unable to beat them, Ni ñ o has no other option but to join them and they become one team.  ANALYSIS: Ni ñ o is like any other child who loves to play.  He’s knowledge of lucha libre sets him off to start his own wrestling match with the monsters but not before putting on his own mask.  One can gather that he is also very caring about his sisters because even though he wrestles them at the end, as the oldest sibling he is careful in the way he wres...