Local News: Stories

It is so very difficult to find books that Latino youth can relate to. The short stories in this book give the reader a glimpse into life in immigrant communities without harping on problems. I brought a copy of this book into my sixth grade class last year and it changed many of my students' perspectives on reading. Many of them read a chapter book for the first time in their lives, and continued reading for pleasure for the rest of the year. I will never forget the looks of surprise on their faces when I read a chapter out loud. They were in shock that there were books in which the characters talked like their families and dealt with subject matter they encountered in their lives. They gobbled up (and fought over) every Gary Soto book I brought into the classroom from then on, and eventually became interested in reading a wide variety of books. Their end of year exam scores improved dramatically, and I believe that at least some of this improvement was because of this book. While there are some good children's books that touch on the experiences of immigrants and Chicanos, they usually just include characters named "Pedro" and toss in a few Spanish words. By unapologetically including Chicano slang and themes common in immigrant communities, this book validates the existence of young Latinos/Chicanos/Mexicanos and gives them a reason to WANT to read. While it does not fill it completely, it begins to fill a tremendous gap that exists in children's literature. Every 5th grade+ literature teacher working with Latino children should definitely have at least one copy in their classroom libraries. Even non-Latinos should enjoy Soto's entertaining method of telling stories.