Alfredito Flies Home

by Jorge Argueta, Luis Garay (Illustrator)

Overview

Alfredito and his family are getting ready to return to their old home in El Salvador for Christmas, their first time back since they left as refugees. But they will make this trip on a plane — the first time any of them has ever flown. The excitement mounts as they drive to the airport, get on the plane and fly up into the air, each step bringing an increasing level of amazement. But the greatest moment of all is when they finally arrive and their beloved relatives meet them. Their old house looks and feels as it always did. The smells, the food, the new puppies, the familiar plants and flowers fill Alfredito's heart with a sense of belonging and joy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780888995858
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	10/01/2007
Series:	Groundwood Bks.
Pages:	36
Sales rank:	649,634
Product dimensions:	8.13(w) x 11.31(h) x 0.43(d)
Lexile:	700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 9 Years

About the Author

JORGE ARGUETA, a Pipil Nahua Indian from El Salvador and Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, is a prize-winning author of more than twenty children’s books. His book Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and was named to USBBY’s Outstanding International Books List, ALA Notable Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. Jorge is the founder of the International Children's Poetry Festival Manyula and the Library of Dreams, a non-profit organization that promotes literacy in El Salvador. Jorge divides his time between San Francisco, California, and El Salvador.

LUIS GARAY is a celebrated Nicaraguan illustrator. He now lives in Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

Speaking in Alfredito's young voice, Argueta tells a warm, understated story about moving between cultures. Through the details of packing and preparations, Argueta skillfully reveals the family's complex feelings of separation and excitement, and Garay's acrylic paintings extend the story's action and emotion with realistic portraits of the families and homes. An important story about the immigrant experience to share with children of all backgrounds.

Booklist

Gr 3-5- After four years living in San Francisco, Alfredito and his parents plan their return visit to El Salvador and have a happy homecoming. Leaving his relatives after the visit is hard on Alfredito, but upon his return to California, he feels "a bit happy" because he has two places to call home. Neither the text nor the illustrations offer insight into the boy's age. In some pictures, he appears to be a preteen; in most scenes he looks and behaves more like a boy of about eight. Full pages of several paragraphs of dry text alternate with formal, realistic acrylic paintings. Both convey the joy of Alfredito's family reunion and delight in his home country, but the text reads more like informative prose than pleasurable fiction. Still, it may resonate with readers who also live far from people they love.-Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD

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