Neighborhood Odes - Hardcover

Soto, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152568794 ISBN 13: 9780152568795

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1992

Synopsis

From family pictures to piñatas, from the gato with a meow like a rusty latch to Fourth of July fireworks, the poet celebrates the startling and often overlooked moments that define childhood. “Affectionate without being overly sentimental, the collection provides a good introduction to contemporary poetry as well as a fine homage to a Chicano community.”--Publishers Weekly

About this title

About the Author:

Gary Soto's first book for young readers, Baseball in April and Other Stories, won the California Library Association's Beatty Award and was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. He has since published many novels, short stories, plays, and poetry collections for adults and young people. He lives in Berkeley, California. Visit his website at www.garysoto.com.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The memories and experiences of Hispanic children are celebrated in a collection of short-lined poems from the author of Baseball in April (1990). With the one exception of the deliciously shivery ``Ode to La Llorona'' (a weeping ghost), the mood ranges from tired happiness to downright exuberance. A girl boasts that she doesn't have to pay for raspados (snow-cones) because her father drives the ice-cream truck; Pablo goes to bed without a bath because ``he wants to be/Like his shoes,/A little dirty''; a child eats a spoonful of ground chile pepper from the molcajete (mortar), to his huge regret; others fondly recall picnics, a wedding, the library, running through the sprinkler, and similar pleasures of a California neighborhood. Diaz's occasional illustrations, with the sharp-edged black areas of woodcuts or paper silhouettes, are angular and stylized to near abstraction. Soto's language leans slightly toward the formal (as befits an ode) and is sprinkled with Spanish words, clear in context but also translated in a glossary. (Poetry. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0152568794
• ISBN 13: 9780152568795
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80
• Illustrator: Diaz David