Santiago Cohen

Home for Navidad is a story about a girl named Rosa who misses her mother who moved from Mexico City three years ago to New York to help send money to her family back home. Rosa wakes up from her grandmothers cooking and starts her day by helping her grandmother prepare breakfast, after breakfast she goes and helps her grandfather in the fields and goes to school later that day. During this day Rosa complains about how she misses her mother and can’t wait for her to come home for Navidad. Rosa’s grandparents tell her not to get her hopes up, bur Rosa believes that her mother will come. At the end of the story Rosa is at the Navidad festival and reunites with her mother who plans to stay in New Mexico from now on. I think this is a very sweet story that kids would really enjoy. I enjoyed how the author used Spanish words and songs in the writing, and how she gave us the definitions of the words at the end of the book. I think this book does show a lot of real life struggles that this family is facing in their life. For instance, we were briefly told how one of Rosa’s uncles crossed the border to make more money in America, which brings up immigration issues in the U.S. Based on illustrations we can also concur that the family is not very wealthy, because the house seems to be a one room place with beds in the kitchen; not to mention again that Rosa’s mom is not with her because she needs to send money back home. I think this book brought up a lot of issues that are important and can be used as a good teaching material for students.… (mais)