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crystal_reading's review against another edition
4.0
The illustrations are lush and vibrant. The text is simple, but expresses much. The poems speak of culture, nature, pride, history and more. My favorite poems were Orgullo/Pride, Nopal/Prickly Pear, Lluvia/Rain, and ¿Estrellas o Flores?/Stars or Flowers. I want to get this one to share at school.
misspentdays's review against another edition
Alma Flor Ada presents 26 poems focused on the culture of Mexican American farmworkers in the multi-award winning Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English. The poetry covers everything from Love and Pride, to Prickly Pear and Peaches, while presenting glimpses into this community.
This book is lovely, while delivering on the promise of using the alphabet. This is a family oriented approach to a topic that is politicized in some titles, which fills an unmet need in the topic.
Simon Silva's illustrations are bright, strong, and positive. He called upon his own experiences growing up in a farmworker family and manages to bring the sun drenched west coast to mind wile remaining somewhat minimal.
As each letter is introduced, we are given a poem based around a Spanish word starting with that letter. The translations, provided by Rosa Zubizarreta, are lovely. The way the book is set up, with the Spanish and English side by side, creates a useful text for those learning either language. The book written to be enjoyed by elementary age students would also work for higher grade students studying English as a Second Language or English speakers learning Spanish.
Not only is it an excellent resource for early Spanish / English as a Second Language courses, it would be a nice addition to classes studying poetry. While there are a number of picture books available in bi-lingual editions, Gathering the Sun provides poetry and a glimpse of particular culture.
This is an essential purchase for any public library system serving Spanish speakers and would be a good purchase for any school teaching Spanish.
This book is lovely, while delivering on the promise of using the alphabet. This is a family oriented approach to a topic that is politicized in some titles, which fills an unmet need in the topic.
Simon Silva's illustrations are bright, strong, and positive. He called upon his own experiences growing up in a farmworker family and manages to bring the sun drenched west coast to mind wile remaining somewhat minimal.
As each letter is introduced, we are given a poem based around a Spanish word starting with that letter. The translations, provided by Rosa Zubizarreta, are lovely. The way the book is set up, with the Spanish and English side by side, creates a useful text for those learning either language. The book written to be enjoyed by elementary age students would also work for higher grade students studying English as a Second Language or English speakers learning Spanish.
Not only is it an excellent resource for early Spanish / English as a Second Language courses, it would be a nice addition to classes studying poetry. While there are a number of picture books available in bi-lingual editions, Gathering the Sun provides poetry and a glimpse of particular culture.
This is an essential purchase for any public library system serving Spanish speakers and would be a good purchase for any school teaching Spanish.
lauralynnwalsh's review against another edition
4.0
I have been thinking lately that we do not honor the people who work hard doing manual labor. Things like repainting our house, replacing the roof (damaged by hail), landscaping and green area maintenance, even child care. In fact, it seems that we reserve our honor more for people who make a lot of money, rather than people who do good, honest work, day in and day out, not just manual labor, but work that simply isn't paid well. This book may not remedy that, but it does honor, and beautifully, the farm workers, especially those from Mexico.
The paintings are the first things you notice with this book - deep rich color. Palette-wise, these are not my personal favorites, but you can't help but love and appreciate the quality of these pictures. The second thing that I admire about the book is the parallel arranging of the Spanish poems with their English translations. I know a bit of Spanish - enough to puzzle out the meanings of some of the poems and then check myself by reading the English words. The translations are not always completely parallel - sometimes, the phrasing is inverted, in order to avoid awkward constructions in English, but I appreciate the effort involved in making the wordings comparable.
But, the strength of the book is really in the respect shown towards the work, the workers, and their families. It is an honor to read this book.
Recommended especially for schools that have students with Mexican ancestry or significant numbers of Spanish-speaking students. But really, just about any children could benefit from seeing this amount of respect shown to farm workers.
The paintings are the first things you notice with this book - deep rich color. Palette-wise, these are not my personal favorites, but you can't help but love and appreciate the quality of these pictures. The second thing that I admire about the book is the parallel arranging of the Spanish poems with their English translations. I know a bit of Spanish - enough to puzzle out the meanings of some of the poems and then check myself by reading the English words. The translations are not always completely parallel - sometimes, the phrasing is inverted, in order to avoid awkward constructions in English, but I appreciate the effort involved in making the wordings comparable.
But, the strength of the book is really in the respect shown towards the work, the workers, and their families. It is an honor to read this book.
Recommended especially for schools that have students with Mexican ancestry or significant numbers of Spanish-speaking students. But really, just about any children could benefit from seeing this amount of respect shown to farm workers.
wordnerd153's review against another edition
3.0
This is an alphabet book full of lovely illustrations. It centers around the work done by the narrator's family and the pride and love she has for her family. The info/poem on each page is written in both Spanish and English, providing a wonderful opportunity to compare the two languages and learn some new vocabulary.
heypretty52's review against another edition
4.0
Silva's illustrations are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in children's books- absolutely breathtaking. I hope that if I ever have children, I am conscientious enough to introduce them to non-English languages very early.
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