Alfredito and his family are getting ready to return to their old home in El Salvador for Christmas, their first time back since they left as refugees. But they will make this trip on a plane — the first time any of them has ever flown. The excitement mounts as they drive to the airport, get on the plane and fly up into the air, each step bringing an increasing level of amazement. But the greatest moment of all is when they finally arrive and their beloved relatives meet them. Their old house looks and feels as it always did. The smells, the food, the new puppies, the familiar plants and flowers fill Alfredito's heart with a sense of belonging and joy.
Alfredito and his family are getting ready to return to their old home in El Salvador for Christmas, their first time back since they left as refugees. But they will make this trip on a plane — the first time any of them has ever flown. The excitement mounts as they drive to the airport, get on the plane and fly up into the air, each step bringing an increasing level of amazement. But the greatest moment of all is when they finally arrive and their beloved relatives meet them. Their old house looks and feels as it always did. The smells, the food, the new puppies, the familiar plants and flowers fill Alfredito's heart with a sense of belonging and joy.
| Published By | Groundwood Books Ltd — Oct 1, 2007 |
| Specifications | 36 pages | 8.13 in x 11.31 in |
| Keywords | Social Issues; Emigration & Immigration; Family; People & Places; Caribbean & Latin America; |
| Written By |
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. |
| Illustrated by |
LUIS GARAY is a celebrated Nicaraguan illustrator. He now lives in Mexico. |
| Written By |
|
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. |
| Illustrated by |
|
LUIS GARAY is a celebrated Nicaraguan illustrator. He now lives in Mexico. |
| Audience | ages 4 to 9 / grades P to 4 |
| Reading Levels | Lexile 700L |
Commended, Americas Award Commended List, 2008
“...formal, realistic acrylic paintings.” —School Library Journal
“Speaking in Alfredito's young voice, Argueta tells a warm, understated story about moving between cultures. Through the details of packing and preparations, Argueta skillfully reveals the family's complex feelings of separation and excitement, and Garay's acrylic paintings extend the story's action and emotion with realistic portraits of the families and homes. An important story about the immigrant experience to share with children of all backgrounds.” —Booklist