Alvarez, Julia. 2002. Before we were free. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0-375-81544-9.

Julia Alvarez tells a fictionalized version of a true story of a family’s tribulations during the final days of the Trujillo dictatorship and the revolution in the Dominican Republic. Soon-to-be twelve-year-old Anita’s life is turned upside down when her cousins and their family have to suddenly leave the country. The large extended family that lives on the family compound quickly becomes a small nuclear unit.

After Anita’s cousins leave the country, the SIM, or secret police, ransack her home and then station themselves in her driveway. The family must speak in hushed tones for fear of being bugged and the tension is so thick even Anita must erase what she writes in her diary. Still, the youngster is kept in the dark.

When El Jefe, the dictator, sets his sights on Anita’s sister, the American consul, a friend of the family, finds a way for her to leave the country. As Anita’s circle becomes increasingly smaller, she begins to mature. She gets her first crush on the neighbor, which dissolves as the tension increases. Anita’s father and uncle are imprisoned and she and her mother must go into hiding. There, they become closer and Anita is treated more like a confidante than the “cotorrita,” or talkative little parrot that she was once considered.

Along with Anita, the reader learns the secrets the adults are trying to keep and it becomes evident that Anita’s family has been part of a movement to overthrow the government and begin a new regime. Ultimately before her country is free, Anita and her mother fly to freedom literally. They join their family in the U.S. to start a new life.

The story, filled with excitement, is paced perfectly for page turning. One reviewer was disenchanted by the diary format the book reverts to about two-thirds of the way in. “The power of the narrative is weakened somewhat by the insertion of Anita’s diary entries as she and her mother take shelter in the Italian Embassy after her father’s arrest. The first-person, present-tense construction of the diary entries are not different enough from the main narrative to make them come alive as such; instead, the artifice draws attention to itself, creating a distraction,” wrote an unidentified reviewer for Kirkus Reviews.

Anita’s family is upper-middle class. Her father attended Yale and speaks fluent English. He hobnobs with diplomats. Anita is educated at an American school.

Cultural markers include Anita’s large extended family all living on a compound in the same community. When the families relocate to the United States, they all spread out—some to Miami and others to Queens—losing their closeness. Names are cultural markers from Tías Mari and Carmen to the García girls.

Alvarez vividly describes traditional Dominican Christmas foods—roasted pig, avocados, guava paste, and ripe plantains for plátanos maduros. On the night of Christmas, or Nochebuena, they throw a “rooster” party, “which will last until the wee hours when the cocks start to crow.” The characters are Catholic and staying true to their faith helps them deal with their struggles. When they arrive in America Anita is enrolled in a Catholic school.

The author mixes words and phrases in Spanish throughout the story, such as “‘¿Como están los cosas?’ How are things?”

Anita is told she has her “mother’s café con leche skin color,” and her father’s black curly hair. She says of her cousin Oscar, “He’s about Sammy’s height but with a permanent suntan, as the American kids sometimes describe the color of our skin.”

Much more than a coming of age story, the book is a captivating lesson rife in language, history, and culture.

2002. Kirkus Reviews 70 (15 June no 12): 876. In Academic Search Premier (database online). Accessed 30 June 2005. 

Soto, Gary. 1994. Jesse. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN: 0-15-240239-X.

Gary Soto’s Jesse is a moving coming of age story about seventeen-year-old Jesse, a Mexican American boy living in Fresno, California during the Vietnam War era. In an effort to get away from the mental abuse of his drunk stepfather, Jesse leaves high school early and moves in with his older brother, Abel. The two attend junior college together where Jesse intends to study art and his brother studies Spanish.

Jesse and his brother are close and they look out for one another. They live on a paltry income—Social Security from their deceased father—and work together in the fields to make ends meet. They chop cotton and pick melons and grapes. Jesse becomes lightly involved with the movement to improve conditions for farm workers and reveres César Chávez. Jesse is a decent student and he recognizes that the best way to a successful future lies in furthering his education. He states, “We were Mexican, and we knew it would be a struggle. Mexican jobs weren’t good jobs.”

Soto’s characters are well developed and their conversations and emotions are realistic. When Abel begins to get close to their landlord’s daughter, Jesse becomes more protective of his brother than afraid of losing their intimacy. Self-conscious Jesse too tries his hand at dating, only to be punched on his first date by a schoolmate. Gradually the tension increases and the mood of the book changes as Abel is drafted and Jesse awaits his letter. Jesse’s prospect of furthering his education is at stake when his brother leaves and he is forced to live on his measly income. The reader is left to wonder if Jesse will make it out of the fields.

Soto’s imagery paints a realistic picture of the boys’ experiences. For example, as Jesse and Abel chop cotton the reader can almost taste the dust: “It was April, still cool and green as we went up and down the rows, not singing because the wind whipped up layers of dust that coated our mouths.”  Further, he demonstrates the climate for Mexican Americans in California during this era.

Merri Monks, a reviewer for Booklist states, “Soto skillfully reveals the truth about the brothers’ lives through details: in a particularly wrenching scene, they try hitchhiking to Pismo Beach for their spring break. Stranded for several days along the road, they shiver together through the night, never reaching the ocean.”

Cultural markers are evident throughout the story. Jesse is religious and crosses himself in times of need. He thinks “of God almost every day.” The interlingual use of Spanish in the text and the setting illustrate Mexican American culture. Jesse says his mom likes Mexican music. Jesse describes his skin color as brown. Of a girl who sits beside him in class he says, “Like me, she was brown from her face to her fingers.”

The boys eat pan dulce, or Mexican sweet bread, as a treat. They eat Top Ramen, eggs, and loquats from the tree in the yard to get by and on occasion their mother brings them a delivery of warm tortillas.

While the undertones of the book and at times his prospects are gloomy, Jesse has a way of thinking positive and looking to the future. In Jesse, Gary Soto has created a character all readers can identify with—his trepidation at dating, his closeness with his brother as well as his nervousness at what will happen next. This book should be a part of every school library’s collection.

Monks, Merri. 1994. Booklist 91. (1 October no 3): 320. In Books In Print (database online). Accessed 30 June 2005. 

Mora, Pat. 1997. Tomas and the library lady. Illustrated by Raul Colon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0-679-80401-3.

In this colorful picture book, Pat Mora tells the tale of what turns out to be a crucial series of events for Tomás Rivera, who later became the chancellor of the University of California, Riverside.

Tomás and his family of migrant workers spend time between Texas and Iowa picking vegetables by way of their rusty old car. To Tomás, Texas is home and “the cot in the small house that his family shared with the other workers” in Iowa is unfamiliar. To provide entertainment, Papá Grande, Tomás’s grandfather, tells the children stories. When he runs out of stories, Papá Grande urges Tomás to visit the library for more stories.

Initially Tomás is intimidated by the big library with “its tall windows…like eyes glaring at him.” However, he is quickly greeted by a friendly librarian who treats him to a drink of water then shares some books with him. Tomás reads until it is time for the library to close. The kind librarian then allows Tomás to check books out on her card.

Tomás spends the summer reading books, sharing the stories with his family, and teaching the library lady Spanish words. As the summer comes to an end, Tomás prepares to depart. He teaches the library lady her final word: adios. Before departing, Tomás gives the library lady a gift from his family. In return she gives him a book of his very own.

The story ends with a note about the story which explains that the campus library at University of California, Riverside “now bears the name of the boy who was encouraged to read by a librarian in Iowa.”

The prose is simple and easy to follow. The book is illustrated with full-paged scratchboard drawings with warm and sometimes vibrant colors. Reviewer Hazel Rochman felt that, “Colon’s beautiful scratchboard illustrations, in his textured, glowingly colored, rhythmic style, capture the warmth and the dreams that the boy finds in the world of books. The pictures are upbeat; little stress is shown; even in the fields, the kids could be playing kick ball or listening to stories.” 

Devices such as the children playing with a ball that Mamá had made out of an old teddy bear demonstrate the poverty, but the illustrations show happy children playing—they fail to make a statement about the poverty and hard work migrant workers endure. A reviewer for Horn Book Guide states, “Colón’s scratchboard illustrations convey the magic of reading and of telling stories, but give little sense of the time period or poverty of Tomás’s life.”  The library lady is depicted as the stereotypical homely librarian with conservative dress and glasses.

Cultural markers are evident throughout the story, including the setting—from the stated home of Texas to the fields where Tomás’s relatives spend their time laboring. Tomás, his mother, and his brother have warm brown skin and dark hair. Grandfather’s stories serve as a cultural marker, demonstrating the closeness of family that is prevalent in Mexican American culture. Names such as Tomás, Enrique, Mamá, and Papá Grande are culturally authentic. The readers learn words in Spanish as grandfather tells his stories and along with the library lady as Tomás teaches her. When Tomás leaves to go back to Texas, he presents the library lady with pan dulce, sweet bread.

An interesting fictionalized biography for young readers, this story also reinforces that value of libraries and librarians.

Rochman, Hazel. 1997. Booklist 93. (1 August No 22): 1906. Available from Books In Print (database online). Accessed 2 July 2005.  

1998. Horn Book Guide 74. (1 March no 2). Available from Books In Print (database online). Accessed 2 July 2005.