A Pen Pal for Max

A pleasant enough book about a pen pal friendship between 10-year old Chilean Maximiliano Farias and a girl of like age in the United States. While there's a dramatic midpoint when a quake shakes, rattles, and rolls Max's house and school, the best moments are the quieter ones. Author Gloria Rand captures a youngster's curiosity about faraway places, and having a long distance friend. When Max (who lives on a large fruit farm) hears about the complicated packing and shipping that will take his family's grapes to the United States, he does the next best thing to stowing away on a refrigerated freighter ships--he sneaks a letter into one of the grape boxes. I'm not sure why he keeps this letter a secret. Does he think it's a foolish wish, or is his yearning so strong that he fears sharing it will somehow destroy it? These are questions that adults and sophisticated youngsters might ask; kids will likely just resonate with Max's desire for a secret wish. He finally hears from the daughter of a produce manager who lives in a "big city." We see Maggie writing letters to Max with a cityscape behind her; it would have been more interesting to know the city in which she lives (as well as where Max lives). This would open the book to geographical exploration. The book also slightly underestimates the inferential ability of all but its very youngest audience: "Max's mother looked puzzled as she handed him the envelope. 'This letter is from someone in the United States. I can tell by the stamp.'" Well, YEAH. And then there's this line: "Max's mother recognized that the letter was writeen in English, even though she could not read it herself." That's not too surprising either. The quake provides some welcome excitement; it's a big one, and Maximiliano's family is relieved that everyone is OK. It also enables a very natural-feeling gesture of friendship and compassion: Maggie and her classmates send packages filled with "books, games, paper, pens, and even new clothes," and there's a very courteous note that, refreshingly, doesn't assume that Max is from some poverty-stricken town: "When you have time to write, we'd really like to know how you are and what it was like. In case your stuff got wrecked, we're sending you some new stuff." Any book that comfortably uses "stuff" in its dialogue is on sure footing, and the Rand team (Ted Rand did the beautifully colored and shaded illustrations) deftly bring these two distant kids together.