author: Francisco Jiménez
illustrator: Simón Silva
Houghton Mifflin, 1998
grades 2-5
Mexican
On the school
bus, a cacophony of voices gives young Francisco headaches. Everyone speaks
English, a language he doesn’t understand. Francisco is overwhelmed and his
mind wanders; he dreams of flying out of the classroom to the lettuce fields to
be with his father, who works there. In the schoolyard, his teacher berates him
for trying to communicate with a young friend in Spanish and, after a misunderstanding
that leads to a fight with another child, Francisco withdraws into himself even
further. His only solace is watching a caterpillar in a jar—and drawing.
As the
year progresses, he witnesses the wonder of a beautiful monarch butterfly
unfolding from its cocoon in the jar, and his drawing of the butterfly—which
had disappeared several months before—wins a blue ribbon! As the children
release the butterfly, Francisco’s teacher repeats in Spanish what he has
said—“¡Qué hermosa!” And then smiles and says—“How beautiful!” By the end of
the year, the teacher has relaxed, some of the children are speaking some
Spanish and Francisco is speaking some English.
This narration
of Jiménez’s autobiographical story about a Spanish-speaking child’s surviving
his first year of school in the US is unembellished and straightforward, and is
beautifully enhanced by Silva’s acrylic, bold-lined paintings, on a palette
reflecting the colors of the monarch butterfly. Also available in Spanish, this
title is highly recommended.
—Beverly Slapin
(published 4/7/13)
(published 4/7/13)
