Cynthia Bolanos Flores Blog

ANIMOTO  https://animoto.com/play/LhzzDYZ4VyLusejvb8316g  Synopsis  Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent. Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied histo...

Cynthia Bolanos Flores Cultural 6 Does My Head Look Big in This? Bibliography Abdel-Fattah, R. (2014). Does my head look big in this? London, England: Scholastic Childrens Books. Plot Summary Main character Amal is a 16 year old Muslim school girl. She has a happy household in which her mother wears a headscarf. As a high school student no one expected for her to want to wear a hijab. Amal wanted to show that she was proud of her faith and was inspired to follow what she believed in.   Though, the students are not as accepting about her choice. Critical Analysis One can see the obstacles that people of this culture face throughout the story. Amal knows she does not look like an Anglo. She is aware of misconceptions people have towards people of her culture. It is amazes me how there are women all over the world use head coverings, but due to appearances Amal encounter cultural backlash. Amal is spunky, but not everyone is equipped to deal with the bullying she h...

Bibliography Say, A. (1999). Tea with milk. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Plot Summary May has lived all her life in the states, it is her home for as long as she can remember. Her world turns upside down when after graduation she must move back with her parents to Japan, because they have grown homesick. In Japan everyone calls her Masako which is her birth name. However, to her it sounds live someone else. She must return to school to learn Japanese even though she has already graduated. Masako misses her home and struggles to make friends. Her family expects her to follow Japanese traditions, but Masako won’t have it. She leaves and finds a job in a nearby city and eventually finds a friend in a boy named Joseph. Critical Analysis The book has many cultural markers and demonstrates the hardships of being Japanese American.   May is used to a life in California and even though her heritage is Japanese she is immersed in an American form of life. This causes her to feel out...

Bibliography Lin, G. (2016). Where the mountain meets the moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company. Plot Summary Minli is a young girl living with her mother and father on Fruitless Mountain. They live in poverty, but her father is optimistic sadly her mother isn’t. Minli wants to make her mother happy so she sets out to find the old man on the moon in hopes of changing her family’s fortune. She hopes to reach Endless Mountain on the way she makes new friends and even finds a companion in a dragon. At the end she must decide to put her needs or the ones of others before her own wishes. Critical Analysis The story is a great representation of Asian Pacific literature. The story reminds me of Wizard of Oz on how the main character makes friends and experiences along the way. When one begins reading each chapter one is greeted with a wonderful picture in color. I could not find physical descriptions though the illustrations do a great job at portraying Asian characters and sy...

Bibliography Kadohata, C. (2014). The Thing about Luck. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Plot Summary Summer and her family are just having a streak of bad luck. One after another bad event has affected them including Summer’s almost death experience with getting sick with malaria. This led Summer to have a paranoia for mosquitos. When her parents have to return to Japan to help sick elderly relatives Summer and her brother must go with her grandparents. Obaachan and Jiichan are very into the old ways. When the family runs into economic issues everyone must try and pull their own weight for the good of the family. However, Summer being so young has a lot on her shoulders. She worries about her brother making friends, trying to help Obaachan in the kitchen when she is feeling sick, and dealing with Jiichan’s expectations. Critical Analysis The story has characters that are real and relatable. The descriptions of settings are wonderfully made such as the wheat fields. As the...

Bibliography Young, E., & Koponen, L. (2011).The house Baba built: an artists childhood in China. New York: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 0316076287 Plot Summary Eddie young and his family are caught up in the chaos of Word War II. His father worried for the families safety makes a deal with a landowner to design and built an expensive house if he allows the family to live there for a period of 20 years. The land in which the young engineer has in mind resides in a safe neighborhood near the foreign embassy. The landowner agrees and Baba takes his family to live in a safer neighborhood in a house he has built for them. Despite the war the kids are joyful and happy using their imaginations within the house their father has built. As the war grows closer relatives, friends, and foreigners found shelter in the home Baba had made. Critical Analysis During a trip to his past home Young decides to put his memories into this work of art. Ed Young’s The House that Baba Built...

The Round House Erdrich, L. (2012). The round house. HarperCollins. Plot Summary The mother of the main character Joe, is violently attacked near the reservation. This leads her husband and teenage son to try to seek justice and retribution each in their own way. His father is a judge in the reservations and is trying to find the offender. The case gets caught up due to a trouble in determining jurisdiction.   As the story continues the reader can see how Joe has to deal with the struggles and hardships of being a Native American. Joe and his father go through the story trying to fix their family and acquire justice. When Geraldine decides to testify the attacker is arrested only to be set free later. Joe takes it upon himself to punish the culprit. This results in him and his friend Cappy creating a plan to murder the offender. Critical Analysis This story of violence and revenge takes place around the 1980s on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. The book demon...

The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood Bibliography Sneve, V. D., & Beier, E. (2011). The Christmas coat: Memories of my Sioux childhood. New York: Holiday House. Summary It is winter time and Virginia is hoping for a new coat. The one she currently has is too small and does not protect her from the cold. As Christmas is approaching the reservation always receives theast boxes full of donated clothes. These boxes were sent from New England for the people on the Indian reservation twice per year.   However, Virginia always picks last since her father is the priest and one must first put the needs of the people. When the boxes arrive Virginia sees a lovely fur coat, but is taken by one of her school mates, Evelyn. She is devastated that she was not able to have it for herself and settle for an oversized brown one. Unfortunately, the fur coat becomes very smelly after it is exposed to rain that Virginia has to give Evelyn her brown coat. Virginia is sad t...

Rabbit's Snow Dance Bibliography Bruchac, James, Joseph Bruchac, and Jeff Newman. Rabbit's Snow Dance. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. Print. ISBN 0803732708 Plot Summary This tale begins in a forest during a summertime with a very impatient rabbit wishing it would snow. Rabbit desired for the weather to change so he could use his big feet to walk over the snow to eat leaves and buds. Rabbit had the idea of using his special song and drum to make it snow like in winter. The other animals tried to stop him, but Rabbit would just not listen. He sang his special song until the snow was so high he could reach all the leaves and buds. Rabbit did not see all the trouble he was causing for the other animals he kept singing till he was tired and fell asleep at the top of the highest tree. The sun melted all the snow and while Rabbit slept. When he finally woke he was caught by surprise. He fell from the top of the tree and his beautiful tail got caught thr...

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Alexie, S., Forney, E. and Hesse, M. (2009). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. Stuttgart: Klett Sprachen. Summary The main character Arnold Spirit Jr. lives in a reservation with his family. Many believed than he would not be able to make it through his infancy due to his born condition of hydrocephalus. This caused Junior to be bullied by others. Junior does not live in very family oriented home his parents are alcoholic. When Junior enters high school his geometry teacher advises him to get out of the reservation. Junior takes his advice and enrolls in a school in Reardan. It not easy coming into a new school and Junior encounters a few mishaps, but eventually is accepted by a few students and joins the basketball team. A series of unfortunate events follow Junior such as the reservation turning their backs at him and losing his sister. Junior even loses his best friend Rowdy for he feels betrayed. At the end Ju...

Bibliography Medina, M., Dominguez, A., & Mlawer, T. (2015). Mango, abuela and me. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 0763669008 Plot Summary Mia’s grandmother has moved in with the family, but they both speak different languages. Mia sets out to teach Abuela English as well as herself learn the Spanish language. Yet, despite their efforts their language is limited and Mia and Abuela cannot communicate how they would like. On a trip to the store with her mother Mia decides to purchase a parrot for Abuela. While teaching Mango English and Spanish Mia and her grandmother grow closer and bond. Critical Analysis Meg Medina the author of Mango, Abuela, and Me is Cuban-American writing books for all age groups. This children’s book is great way to show Latin culture. In this cute story of family, love, and patience the main characters Mia and her grandmother overcome a language barrier between them. This is a situation that many Latin families encounter. This book wou...

Bibliography Engle, M. (2017). The firefly letters: a suffragettes journey to cuba . Turtleback Books.  ISBN 0805090827 Plot Summary Fredrika Bremer is a traveler from Sweden writing about the discoveries she encounters on foreign lands. She spends some time in Cuba were she meets an African slave girl named Cecilia and Elena a rich heiress. Fredrika quickly learns that Cuba might look like paradise, but women are oppressed and slavery is prominent in the region. Fedrika unlike many women in the 1850s is very liberal and outspoken. She left her wealthy family in order to travel, learn, and experience the world. She sketches and writes about her experiences with Cecilia helping her translate during her time in Cuba. Fedrika becomes found of Cecilia and cannot imagine leaving Cuba knowing that Cecilia and her unborn child will live in slavery the rest of their lives. The two go through many adventures together while Elena watches from afar wishing she c...

Bibliography Mora, P., & López, R. (2009). YUM! MMMM! QUE RICO!: Americas sproutings . New York: Lee & Low Books. Plot Summary This wonderful illustrated story contains a collection of haiku poems. They come accompanied by informative text about each food and a fun illustration. Critical Analysis This story covers fourteen indigenous foods of the Americas hence the name America’s sproutings. The book contains a short poem of three lines per food type. It comes with informational text on each of the foods as well. The information states history, usage, locations found, growing details, and other facts. It would be a great book for cultural learning for young readers for its descriptive language and expressive illustrations. Pat Mora has created something that celebrates different foods and wonderful symbols of Latin cuisine. The food is showcased by vivid illustrations with no one specific character. The colors are bold and capture the reader’s attention. Rafael ...

Bibliography Engle, Margarita. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom.   New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2008. ISBN: 10-0-8050-8674-9 Plot Summary This story takes place in Cuba following the life of a slave girl by the name of Rosa. She unlike other slaves is unique and has learned to nurse others back to health using natural remedies. The story follows Rosa’s life throughout Cuba’s three wars fighting for independence. Rosa is given her freedom during the first war and devotes her life to helping the rebel group through her nursing skills. This causes the Spaniards to put a price tag on Rosa’s head. Lieutenant Death searches most of his life for Rosa and comes close to capturing her, but never does. Rosa marries a man by the name of Jose and they both help cure the injured rebels.   Rosa’s reputation spreads through out Cuba for many years to come. She comes to believe that the United States would be Cuba’s salvation. Yet, even after the th...

Bibliography Hughes, L., Collier, B., & Linn, L. (2012). I, too, am America. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Plot Summary This picture book uses vibrant illustrations to retell a poem by Langston Hughes. It tells the story of porters and the injustices they experienced. It shows how they did the best out of it and found a way to give back to their community. It tells a story of hope for a better future. Critical Analysis This picture book demonstrates African Americans wanting to be treated with equality and respect as others through a poem by Langston Hughes. It helps children understand how things were back then through pictures. It represents the hope individuals had for acceptance, a part of our history that impacted African American culture. The poem is retold in power illustrations that show African Americans in a setting which they were placed by society. It portrays the bravery and strength of African Americans that wanted change and had ...