Overview
From Follett
Text in English with some Spanish. Armando and his father are trash-pickers in Tijuana, Mexico, but when Senor David brings his "school"--a blue tarp set down near the garbage dump--to their neighborhood, Armando's father decides that he must attend classes and learn.
From the Publisher
Armando's family is pepenadores, trash pickers, living off things they can use, recycle, and sell from the city trash dump. Armando works with his father to help support the family, but he also finds things for himself--pencil stubs, a notebook, and an old paint set--with which to write and paint. One summer Senor David arrives and begins teaching school on a blue tarp spread on the ground. Armando's parents finally decide that learning may help him find different work when he grows up, so he begins attending the blue tarp school. The children learn to read and write in Spanish and English. They learn math. And they draw, much to Armando's delight. When a fire in the colonia burns down several homes, it is Armando's picture of the fiery night that helps bring outside support and money to construct a school building. The story is inspired by the work of David Lynch, a teacher from New York who first began working in a colonia in Mexico in the early 1980s.
Product Details
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Publisher: Lee & Low Books Inc.
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Publication Date:
March 15, 2014
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Format:
Paperback
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Edition:
First edition.
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Dewey:
-E-
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Classifications:
Fiction, Easy
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Description:
32 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 27 cm
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Tracings:
Josephson, Judith Pinkerton, author. ; Sosa, Hernan, 1977- illustrator.
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ISBN-10:
1-62014-165-5
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ISBN-13:
978-1-62014-165-6
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Follett Number:
0723BM2
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Interest Level:
K-3
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Reading Level:
2.7
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ATOS Book Level:
2.8
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AR Interest Level:
LG
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AR Points:
.5
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AR Quiz: 118604EN
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Reading Counts Level:
2.7
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Reading Counts Points:
2
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Lexile:
AD560L
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Fountas & Pinnell:
Q
Reviews & Awards
- Book Links, 01/01/11
- Book Links starred, 01/01/08
- Booklist, 11/15/07
- Horn Book Magazine, 04/01/08
- Kirkus Reviews, 09/15/07
- Library Media Connection, 02/01/08
- Multicultural Review, 03/01/08
- School Library Journal, 10/01/07
- Wilson's Children, 10/01/10
Full-Text Reviews
Booklist (November 15, 2007 (Vol. 104, No. 6))
Grades K-2. This poignant picture book narrated by a young boy is based on a true story of a New York City teacher who set up a school on a blue tarp spread on the ground near a garbage dump in Tijuana, Mexico. Armando works all day with his father in the foul-smelling dump, picking through trash, “some to sell, some to use.” He begs his parents to let him go to the blue tarp school, and at last, his parents allow him to attend in the afternoons. Clear, unframed, double-page pictures in watercolor and ink with thick white outlines show the children on the tarp in the midst of the noisy colonia (neighborhood) and also the bond between the boy and his teacher. When a huge fire burns the neighborhood, Armando’s picture of the fiery night is printed alongside the story in the newspaper, and people send money to build a real schoolhouse. A lengthy final note fills in the facts and includes photos of the teacher and the pupils at the school now. Without melodrama, Armando’s story shows what poverty means and the hope that things can change.
Read all 5 full-text reviews …
Horn Book Guide (Spring 2008)
This book describes Armando's childhood in a poor Mexican colonia and the man who brings education and art to the community. Based on a true story, the text sprinkled with Spanish vocabulary is instructive but wordy. Distinctive illustrations outlined in white give the pictures dimension. Photographs of the children in a colonia are appended. Glos.
Kirkus Reviews (September 15, 2007)
This affecting tale--of a plein-air schoolroom in a deeply impoverished neighborhood populated by pepenadores (trash pickers)--springs from the real deal. Fine and Josephson have taken the story of David Lynch, who first went to Mexico in 1980 to teach children living in the Tijuana city dump, and fashioned it into a picture book. Fictional, yes, but only marginally so. Their story pivots around Armando, who scours the dump with his father all day long for anything of worth, and his thirst to join the classroom: a blue tarp on the bare ground. Though Armando's income is vital to the family, his parents come to understand that only an education will allow him to eclipse pepenadore life. The simplicity of the story is what lets it run deep, its bite of realism; no sermons are being delivered here, just a door thrown open to life under reduced circumstances (though Sosa's artwork, with its look of leaded glass, conveys a benevolent quality to the proceedings). Without patronizing, Se-or David defines the essence of humanitarianism, while the pepenadores, ever searching for beauty in the beast, find gold--and prize it. (Picture book. 5-9)
Library Media Connection (February 2008)
Young Armando longs to be a regular student at the makeshift school that Se¤or David, an American, sets up on a blue tarp near the Tijuana dump. While his family needs his help with scavenging at the dump, his parents eventually allow him to spend his afternoons learning to read English and Spanish. Then a fire destroys much of the neighborhood, and a drawing by Armando is printed in the newspaper, inspiring a woman to donate money to build a real school. Loosely based on David Lynch's 27 years of devotion to the children of Tijuana, this is a straightforward story that captures the warmth of the adults and the enthusiasm of the children for their unconventional school. Figures in the illustrations have an unusual double outline that makes them appear collaged. Vibrant watercolors and good-natured faces help keep the story from being bleak. Young readers will have no idea where the book is set without reading a lengthy author's note, but they will be touched by this gentle account of hardship overcome by perseverance. Recommended. Jan Aldrich Solow, Library Media Specialist, A. Scott Crossfield Elementary School, Herndon, Virginia
School Library Journal (October 1, 2007)
Gr 1-4-Armando and his family live in a colonia near the Tiajuana city dump. Like most of their neighbors, they eke out a meager living by hunting through the mounds of foul-smelling garbage for anything they can use or sell. Then Se-or David arrives, spreads a blue tarp on the ground, and sets up a school. At first the boy's parents are reluctant to let him attend because they need him to work for the family, but eventually they realize that this school could lead to a better life for their son. An extensive author's note explains that Se-or David is based on David Lynch, a former special-education teacher who has devoted 27 years to teaching children like Armando in a similar colonia. The well-written text will be an eye-opener for children who take school for granted, and Sosa's masking fluid, watercolor, and ink illustrations, while offering little variety in facial expression, accurately depict the environment.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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