Adrianna Cuevas
Autor(a) de The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez
Obras por Adrianna Cuevas
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
Membros
Críticas
Listas
Prémios
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Estatísticas
- Obras
- 8
- Membros
- 265
- Popularidade
- #86,991
- Avaliação
- 4.2
- Críticas
- 6
- ISBN
- 34
- Línguas
- 1
This was an interesting historical fiction read, although I admit it was a bit slow going at first. Cumba arrives in America a little before the half-way point of the book, and I confess to enjoying that second part more than earlier chapters where I anticipated he would be sent off the island. (Perhaps the intended audience of late elementary school-age children and middle schoolers would be more surprised but I knew it was inevitable.) Seeing Cumba trying to fit into his new home, meeting new folks (including other Cuban refugees), trying to improve his English, etc. was far more engaging. Also, I think these parts are great for young readers to develop some empathy for their classmates and neighbors who might be immigrants and/or refugees. I also appreciated that the ending was both happy and realistic, with not every character getting a picture-perfect conclusion but not everything is doom and gloom.
The backmatter includes a glossary that I didn't find super helpful as it didn't define all of the Spanish words used in the text. In some cases, that was fine because context clues made it obvious the meaning, but in other cases I had to resort to using online translation services. Personally, I think no glossary would have been better than one that didn't include everything. There was also a note from the author here explaining how Cumba's story was actually based in large part on her own father's story. This was very insightful; I only wish it had been a preface because it really did make the story that much more meaningful and impactful.… (mais)