A first person account of meeting a girl named Mia who lives in Chile, between the big city and the snowy mountains. Mia and her family live off what the city throws away. Their house is built of odds and ends, though her father dreams of building a house of bricks. The people in her village are very clever about fixing what they find. Her father sells scrap in the city every day and one day he returns with a puppy for her. But during the hard winter, Poco the puppy disappears, so Mia sets out on the horse called Sancho to look for her throughout the dumps. She searches far and wide, until she finds herself up in the mountains above the city and her village. She and Sancho enjoy the beauty and the solitude of the spot. Though they don't find Poco, they do find some white flowers on the way back down and Mia gathers a clump of them to take home and remind her of "how she looked for Poco and found this place in the stars." Back home, she plants the flowers and their seeds spread , creating beauty in the dumps. Eventually she asks her father if she can try to sell her white flowers in the city, and the business proves so profitable, her father gives up selling scraps to help her and work together towards their dream of a house of bricks. When people asked where she found such flowers, she always answered "They come from the stars." And whenever packs of dogs would run by, Mia would remember Poco -- and one day a dog stopped to smell the flowers and licked Mia's face.

Mia's Story: A Sketchbook of Hopes & Dreams by Michael Foreman (2006) is the story of a young girl's life in Chile. Mia and her family live in a small rural village outside of a big city. In order to survive the family uses the trash left from the big city to make things they need. Many lessons are learned from reading this book; although these lessons are not clearly stated by the author. Allowing the reader to come to these understandings on their own is what makes this a quality book.

In a classroom I could use this book for many things. It can be used to introduce a new culture, teach about pollution, or create discussions about things that may be trash to one person and treasures to another. That discussion could lead to a project where students have to analyze what they throw away to better understand what they consider trash or treasure. ( )

Beautifully drawn, sweet story. The creator could have done with learning some basics of comics story telling first though - it's not done as a comic but the flow of the reading doesn't stick to left-right up-down and so sometimes it's confusing. I've ended up reading bits in the wrong order because it's not that clear which of the sketchbook drawings to read next, in particular. ( )

Overall, "Mia's Story" is a warm, heartfelt, and well-written story for several reasons. The story is told from the perspective of a traveller who passes through the impoverished, garbage dump village of Campamento San Francisco. The traveller documents his experiences with Mia and walks the reader through a small portion of Mia's life. The writing itself is very strong, and it guides the reader through Mia's search for Poco, and it also shows the reader how she lives, and even thrives, in a less than ideal living environment. The main idea of this story details something wonderful entering Mia's bleak and depressing live, and how when the receives the threat to lose Poco forever, she goes on a journey of personal sacrifice and discovery to get him back. ( )

A first person account of meeting a girl named Mia who lives in Chile, between the big city and the snowy mountains. Mia and her family live off what the city throws away. Their house is built of odds and ends, though her father dreams of building a house of bricks. The people in her village are very clever about fixing what they find. Her father sells scrap in the city every day and one day he returns with a puppy for her. But during the hard winter, Poco the puppy disappears, so Mia sets out on the horse called Sancho to look for her throughout the dumps. She searches far and wide, until she finds herself up in the mountains above the city and her village. She and Sancho enjoy the beauty and the solitude of the spot. Though they don't find Poco, they do find some white flowers on the way back down and Mia gathers a clump of them to take home and remind her of "how she looked for Poco and found this place in the stars." Back home, she plants the flowers and their seeds spread , creating beauty in the dumps. Eventually she asks her father if she can try to sell her white flowers in the city, and the business proves so profitable, her father gives up selling scraps to help her and work together towards their dream of a house of bricks. When people asked where she found such flowers, she always answered "They come from the stars." And whenever packs of dogs would run by, Mia would remember Poco -- and one day a dog stopped to smell the flowers and licked Mia's face.

The spread of the flowers reminds me of Miss Rumphius... ( )