After Tyler’s father is injured in a farming accident, the family has to hire migrant Mexican workers to save the farm. 12-year-old Tyler meets and becomes friends with the oldest daughter, who is his age. When Tyler finds out that many family members are illegal immigrants and that their mother ...
As a kind of window into a 3rd world country I thought it worthwhile. Although it lacked the sweep of a statistical survey, and lacked the in-depth account of the worst victims of both earthquake and poverty (i.e, there was plenty of suffering in that country long before the earthquake). I picked...
A memoir by Julia Alverez, this actually covers two trips to Haiti by Julia and her husband Bill, accompanying a young man who works on their coffee farm. What I found interesting was the author’s own shock at the poverty of Haiti, though she has worked and lived in/with the Dominican Republic at...
When I turned to the first page of Saving the World by Julia Alvarez and discovered it was written in present tense, I was very put-off. The old English teacher in me knew I couldn't read a longish book all in present tense, but I don't give up easily, and I'm glad I did not. Ms. Alvarez reel...
In Julia Alvarez’s first young adult novel, Before we were Free, we meet 12-year-old Anita de la Torre. Like many young children, she is curious and talkative. Having lived a comfortingly protected life thus far, Anita is sweetly innocent and naïve. Her life seems rather normal. She annoys he...
I have completed the book. I am not as enthralled as when I began it. Why? What went wrong? I am only going to give the book three stars.I am not going to give another synopsis of the book. If that is what you are looking for please see the book description above. I have learned how it might have...
Many books make their way into high school classrooms. Some of these books are met with great praise, while others are thrown into garbage cans never to be looked at again. However, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez is definitely a novel that does not deserve to be left wit...
Everything of ours--from lives to literature--has always been so disposable, she thinks. It is as if a little stopper that has contained years of bitterness inside her has been pulled out. She smells her anger--it has a metallic smell mixed in with earth, a rusting plow driven into the ground. Ar...
Do You Believe in Miracles, or Not?By: Nhat Do The novel “Finding Miracles” by Julia Alvarez retells wonderful miracles happened in this story that changed Milly’s life. Yet, miracles only appeared when she overcame her feeling of being ashamed because of her identity and tried to find o...
“Había una vez…” Tía Lola begins. Once upon a time....And Miguel feels a secret self, different from his normal everyday self, rising up like steam from a boiling kettle into the air and disappearing inside Tía Lola’s stories. (18)Tía Lola has a wonderful ability to transport those around her int...
The new island colony is the Dominican Republic in the early 1500s and the mysterious lady becomes identified as Our Lady of Altagracia (Our Lady of Thanks). She comes to Maria in a dream during a most desperate time. Olives were a more successful crop in Spain where her parents are from and fail...
Victoria cannot believe what wishing on an old birthday candle—just to indulge a little sister—has brought about. All she wished for was that a family with one cute teenage boy would come to stay at Tía Lola’s B&B. Up pulls a van with a college name and logo on the side door. Out jump not one...
Dear Little Book, Minerva gives you to me today for my First Communion. You are so pretty with a mother of pearl cover and a little latch like a prayerbook. I will have such fun writing on your tissue-thin pages. Minerva says keeping a diary is also a way to reflect and re...
Okay, so he’s not the shortest boy in his class (which includes fourth graders, after all). But of all the fifth graders, only Oliver and Lily are shorter, and there are three fourth graders who are actually taller than Miguel—and one of them, Anna, is even a girl. Miguel’s mother keeps telling h...
she whispered, more sincerely. Many thanks. Suddenly, as if these were magic words, trees burst out of the ground full of leafy branches heavy with oranges. Under the grove stood a beautiful lady with golden skin and a crown of stars. “Who are you?”
Miguel asks his mother. Tomorrow their aunt is coming from the Dominican Republic to visit with them in their new home in Vermont. Tonight they are unpacking the last of the kitchen boxes before dinner. “Because she doesn’t know any English,” his mother explains. “Tía is the word for aunt in Span...
Esperanza asks, waving hers dangerously close to a shelf of knickknacks in the dining room.They are sitting at the breakfast table, having just finished eating the blueberry pancakes Tía Lola cooked up in honor of her guests. The girls are waiting to hear what’s in store for their first day at Tí...
child" 121 The information which follows is important since it describes the copyright ownership and legal restrictions on the use of this Bookshareddorg digital material which govern your lawful use of it. Copyright Notices The owner of the copyright on this digital material is Julia Alvarez and...