Illustrator: Thomas B. Allen1988
RL: 3.7 (age 7-10)
Perfect for beginning of 4th/Latin America
Rating: Good
Juan lives in the mountains in San Pablo, Guatemala. He is very poor and his story makes me so sad - seventeen-year-old mother, father abandons them, they go to live with grandmother and huge extended family in tiny home. Mother remarries and doesn't want him. Strict grandmother teaches him to shine shoes and at 7 years old earns a dollar a day working full time. He longs to go to school but is afraid to bring it up to his grandmother, so with the help of customers, teaches himself to read.
There's a shift in the story here. When he finally talks to his grandmother about school, the reader gets to see her a little differently, a little closer look, and the story becomes one of devotion and love while still working hard to survive.
Easy to read. Lots to think about. Poverty. Culture.
This could be a read aloud, create a picture book or mural or montage--endless possiblilities.
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