The Magic Shell

When his family moves from the Dominican Republic to New York City, Jaime uses his uncle's magical shell to call up happy memories

Grade 3-5?Jaime and his family move from the Dominican Republic when his father's new job takes them to New York City. As a going-away present, his great-uncle gives him a conch shell and tells the boy that listening to it will help him remember his village and friends. Jaime is unaccustomed to cold weather and heavy winter clothes, and he does not speak English. He thinks he will never make friends in his new home, and he often listens to the shell to remind him of Montana Verde. After he starts school, he makes some friends; by summer, he is so content that he is reluctant to return to the Dominican Republic for a visit. During his stay, he talks to his great-uncle about the shell and realizes that the magic was really within himself. Jaime is convincingly caught between two cultures but supported by believable friends and family in both locations. This upbeat story flows well with a good mixture of imagination and reality. None of the realism is overly harsh, though?no political oppression or poverty. However, the boy's loneliness and fear of a new situation ring true as legitimate childhood concerns.?Marilyn Long Graham, Lee County Library System, Fort Myers, FL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 2^-4. A strongly upbeat chapter book about immigration shows the push and pull of living on both sides of the border. When his father gets a good job in New York City, Jaimie Ramos hates leaving his mountain village in the Dominican Republic. He can't get used to the cold in the new country; he can't speak English; he has no friends. But soon he settles in so well that he's reluctant to go back to the island for a visit. Then once he's there, he realizes how beautiful it is and how much it is part of him, and he's half-scared to go back to the U.S. There are occasional lyrical passages, but generally the writing is unexceptional. The characters are idealized: everyone in both countries is always nice. What raises this above the docunovel is that Mohr shows the richness of living in two cultures and also the loneliness and loss. Hazel Rochman