René Colato LainezReseñas

This book was an enjoyable read, and has a great lesson. It teaches students to be proud of their heritage and to not be ashamde to share their culture with others.

El libro enseña palabras que se usan el el fútbol. Esta en Inglés y Español.

The illustrations are very reminiscent of animated movies.

Goodreads Review:
The experiences of young migrant children traveling to the United States are poignantly portrayed in this bilingual picture book.

This is a very emotional story about a little boy and his Mom who left El Salvador together but without Papa. Beto longs for the day when Papa will join them in the United States. When Beto reads a letter to his father on the radio, an immigration lawyer steps in to assist and makes Beto's dream come true. It tells the story of the many struggles and challenges immigrant families face and must endure in the process of leaving their country of origin and settling in the United States, especially leaving loved ones behind and the long wait to be reunited.

Critical Analysis: This book has authentic authorship; attends to the importance of children seeing themselves portrayed in literature (Mirrors, windows, sliding doors); diversity; supports children's social identity and development; multiculturalism

Favorite Quote:
"Papa, these are your favorite boots," "Will you always stay with me?" "I will be with you forever."

Rene's family is from El Salvador. When he attends school in the United States he is confused because his teacher left off one of his last names. He feels as though an important part of him is missing. Rene has a great idea that inspires a project that he presents to the class with pride in his ancestral heritage and all of his names.

Critical Analysis: This book helps children to develop self awareness, self-confidence, and pride in their family/name and can teach children to view situations with new perspectives, to see the viewpoint of another, and to engage in prosocial behavior. It also fosters a sense of belonging, heritage, embraces differences and foster an appreciation for diversity.

Favorite Quote: "If you call me Rene Colato only. the other half of my family disappears."

Awards and Honors:
Bank Street CBC Best Children's Book of the Year

An inspiring story that shares from the perspective of a child the journey they endure coming to America from Central America.

This book tells the story of a father and son making their way to the United States to reach the boys mother who is already there, and the trials of the journey and the boy's experience through his new shoes. This story does a great job showing what an immigration story or journey could be like, and how challenging it is for families. This book would be appropriate for early to intermediate readers.

A great book to have on shelves in classrooms. It is bilingual, which I think is awesome. It displays a family divided because of immigration / deportation. From a childs point of view, his mother cannot get back into America. It shows him and his father going to visit her, and it shows her life in the home for the deported. There are many children who got separated from their families. It is sad, bittersweet, but shows a very big reality of struggles families face as immigrants.

A great book to show and illustrate immigration. The story might be heart wrenching in breaking apart a family for being undocumented but the love between the family really what gives this book the traction to be great. It allows for exploration of what really happens in the world in a way young children can understand.

A little boy goes to see his grandmother, but doesn't know Spanish so he is worried about how they will know what each other are saying. The grandmother teaches him about loteria and the game and how it is played, while they go to the fair. The grandmother has a loteria stand and the people come by the stand to play the game, and the little boy watches and learns how to play while he tries to pronoun the words. He works with his grandmother to learn the phrases of loteria, and in return he teaches his grandmother how to speak English. At the end of their time together his mother comes back to get him and is pleased to see him speaking Spanish. This book is intended for grades 1-3 and it can be used in any subject to help people either learn English or learn Spanish!

This book is an autobiography that is in a children's friendly format. The author tells his story and hardships of the unimaginable journey he and his father went through crossing three borders to get to his mother. The focus of the story is the boy's shoes. They start off being shiny and new, and by the end, the shoes were destroyed from miles of walking, mountains crossed, and rivers swam. The author helped the reader understand the severity of his hardship by the wear and tear of his shoes — another book that I will be recommending and incorporating into my classroom.

Great to show children there's more than one word that immigrants are called. And alien doesn't always mean from outer space.

I think this book is perfect for kids who may have discovered there parents aren't US citizenship and educates kids on why and how. I did however think the book was kind of weird, i was not a fan of the way it read, but did enjoy the illustration as they were silly and colorful.

A young girl, Sofia saw that her mom’s resident alien fell out of her purse. Once Sofia saw it, she thought her mom was a alien. But she learns that the world “alien” in English has two meanings behind it.

This book can be used as a bridge text for Spanish speaking students who are building literacy with both their Spanish and English. The pictures providing another meaningful tool for students to comprehend the text. Additionally, fluent English speakers who are at early and/or emergent reading levels learn about another culture through a relatable main character.

I love this book because I can connect to it. When it comes to names people butcher mine and I wonder myself if my daughters school will only use one of her last names since she will have two. I also enjoyed that book is written in Spanish and English. I love reading books that I can connect with my culture.

I love this book, it was so cute and it made me smile.

This story is told in the point of view of a young boy, José, who tells his emotional story of his Mother being deported back to Mexico from the U.S for not having immigration papers. José and his Father go to visit his Mother, where they bring her clothes and some of José's drawings, with the hopes that his Mother will recieve permanent residency soon. The oil paintings capture the essence of the story by showing detail of the emotions of the characters, and the locations of the story. This is a great book for teaching Spanish to young students, since it has the Spanish translation underneath of the English. This is a great visual tool for young students to compare the English and Spanish translations of words. This book has a sweet ending of José dreaming about crossing the border with his Mother, and them being a family again. I would definitely recommend this book for a lesson about immigration to students.½

This book is written in both English and Spanish.It is the story of young Jose, who lives in San Diego with his family, when his mother one day does not come home. It turns out that Jose's mother has been deported by immigration officials. Today is the day Jose gets to travel to Mexico to see and reunite with his mother! Jose travels to Tijuana to visit his mother who is being held in an immigration center. He meets other children and families who have been separated from their loved ones and he realizes how lucky he is to even be able to visit his mother, when others are not. This is a very culturally-relevant book, given today's political climate, and can be used in schools facing such troubles.

This book is about a hispanic family living in San Diego. The mother of the family gets sent back to Tijuana because she doesn't have her papers and the family is forced to have to deal with this devastating separation.
The book is told in both English and Spanish, which I thought was a nice touch.

I really liked this book for many reasons. I liked this book at first because this was another book written in both Spanish and English, which would be a great book to include in the classroom with ELL students. I also liked this book because it is about a student who tells his classmates about his family and why he has two last names. This is a great way to show students about the Latin heritage and culture. This book can be very relatable to many students who are different from their classmates. I believe the big idea to this story is to not be afraid of who you are and to be proud of your culture.

Through the game of La loteria, a billingual boy learn Spanish from his grandmother and he teaches her English while he's visiting Mexico

Any book that has this much color is automatically something that is appealing to the eye just looking at the illustrations on the cover. This book actually can give students a peak into another language. It provides English and Spanish and realistic experiences that children may go through when it comes to deportation. It gives great facts incorporated into the story line and gives great emotion so that children can understand how someone else my feel. I would love to have books like this in my library.

I really enjoyed reading a new twist on the "Old MacDonald" nursery rhyme. This book makes a great lesson for how other cultures and languages still tell the same stories that we are familiar with in the U.S. I thought it was interesting seeing how the animal noises were written differently in Spanish.