Alfredito Flies Home (Groundwood Books) - Hardcover

Argueta, Jorge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0888995857 ISBN 13: 9780888995858

Publisher: Groundwood Books, 2007

Synopsis

Alfredito and his family are getting ready to return to El Salvador for Christmas. It will be their first visit back since they left as refugees and made their way to California on foot. But this time they're flying! Excitement mounts as Alfredito and his family soar over the Earth and finally arrive at their beloved home to reunite with family and friends. This extraordinary book celebrates an experience familiar to the many who have left their original country to find a new life. Jorge Argueta's tender, clever prose is perfectly complemented by Luis Garay's rich, authentic illustrations.

About this title

About the Author

Jorge Argueta is an award-winning author of picture books and poetry for young children. He has won the International Latino Book Award, the Américas Book Award, the NAPPA Gold Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award for Multicultural Fiction for Juveniles. His books have also been named to the Américas Award Commended List, the USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List, Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds, illustrated by Alfonso Ruano, won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, was a Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature honor book and an ALA Notable book, and received many other honors. A native Salvadoran and Pipil Nahua Indian, Jorge Argueta has returned to El Salvador and built a library in his backyard in San Salvador so that children can learn to love books.

Luis Garay is a celebrated Nicaraguan illustrator who spent six months in Guatemala doing research for the illustrations in this book. He has also illustrated Jade and Iron, A Handful of Seeds, Cousins / Primas and Alfredito Flies Home / Alfredito regresa volando a su casa. One of the best young Latin American illustrators working today, Luis Garay now lives in Mexico.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3–5—After four years living in San Francisco, Alfredito and his parents plan their return visit to El Salvador and have a happy homecoming. Leaving his relatives after the visit is hard on Alfredito, but upon his return to California, he feels "a bit happy" because he has two places to call home. Neither the text nor the illustrations offer insight into the boy's age. In some pictures, he appears to be a preteen; in most scenes he looks and behaves more like a boy of about eight. Full pages of several paragraphs of dry text alternate with formal, realistic acrylic paintings. Both convey the joy of Alfredito's family reunion and delight in his home country, but the text reads more like informative prose than pleasurable fiction. Still, it may resonate with readers who also live far from people they love.—Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD
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Edition details

• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0888995857
• ISBN 13: 9780888995858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Garay Luis