Author : Rene Colato Lainez, Illustrator : Anthony Accardo
Preschool - 2nd Grade

Esperando a Papa - Waiting for Papa

Esperando a Papa - Waiting for Papa, Hardcover, Bilingual, Book, Rene Colato Laínez, Anthony Accardo, Preschool - 2nd Grade, 9781558854031, $16.95

$890.76 for the Bilingual Collection Blue Books Set, Including 20%-Off, Free Shipping, and No Sales Tax : 60 Hardcover Bilingual Books, 10 Softcover Bilingual Books, and 1 Hardcover Spanish Book

As Beto looks at the eight candles on his birthday cake, he knows that his wish is always the same. Beto wishes that he could be with his father every chance he gets. It has been three years since he and Mamá left El Salvador. Lurking in his mind are the memories of the losses they suffered before leaving: the bombing of a factory, the burning of the family home, the loss of all their possessions, but most of all, he thinks of the father that he has left behind.  In the United States, Mamá has found a job in a sewing factory making jeans, and they are trying to bring Papá to the United States with the help of an immigration lawyer. But this is only the beginning, and for Beto, it seems that his father cannot come fast enough.  One day in school, Beto is given the opportunity to write his father a letter. When he is invited to read his letter on RADIO Voz del Immigrante, his heartfelt homage to home spurs a surprising chain of events, that even the imaginative Beto could not have expected.

In this book, readers discover a young character whose vision and tenacity allow him to accomplish a feat that once seemed nearly impossible. Through the character's memories of El Salvador and his classroom experiences, the reader also gains insight into the tense political ramifications of war in a country and how that war impacts its survivors. For Beto and the reader, Waiting for Papá is an educational lesson.

Listen to Vienna Rose read Waiting for Papa to you.  A marvelous example of the magical encounter between a child and books that we wish for all children.

School Library Journal : Grade 1-3 - When the family's home in El Salvador burned down, five-year-old Beto and his mother moved to the United States. Unfortunately, his father could not get a visa and remained behind. Now, three years later, the boy still misses Papá terribly, and although his mother works with an immigration lawyer, she makes no headway. A class project and a resultant radio broadcast finally open the door to the long-awaited reunion, and Beto's classmates help him raise money to buy his father a very special gift. This rather lengthy story is engaging enough, though too long to read aloud easily and burdened with a "too good to be true" sensibility. Accardo's pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations are reminiscent of Disney's cartoons - think Aladdin at grade school - but they have child appeal in a slick, commercial way. Similar in tone and subject matter to Tito Campos's The Muffler Man/El hombre mofle (Piñata, 2001), this title offers a sound introduction to the many issues surrounding immigration and its impact on families.

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