Los Deseos de Carmela by De la Pena, Matt by Marissa Posada

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Justification: I found this title on the TLA Tejas Star Award list. I was trying to find this book in English, but my public library only had it in Spanish. I had really liked the summary that I read for the English version. So I went ahead and checked the Spanish version out and had my mom help me translate it for this review. This was a great opportunity to dust off our Spanish skills.

Evaluation:

This book has many instances of figurative language. Carmela starts off the story describing the dandelion that she finds in front of the laundromat. " ...el blanco y esponjoso bulbo,..." Then she describes her day dreams, the first of having a vending machine of treats in her wall, her mother staying in a luxury hotel, and her father coming home with his papers. The story does not got into detail about what papers her father is supposed to bring home, but I believe that they were probably immigration papers since he stood outside a warehouse every morning waiting for work. Carmela also describes the streets she goes down with her brother, with the busy bus stop, the fenced in workshop, and the smiling old folks home. She also describes vividly waiting with her eyes closed at the beach they go to at the end of the story. She mentions the murmur of the ocean, the sounds of the birds and the whistling of the wind in her ear. A recurring theme is the sound of her bangles clinking everywhere she goes and how it irritates her brother.

The dialogue in the book gives us a great view of what kind of child Carmela is. She has a sort of mantra she says to her older brother when he gets upset with her, "Mala suerte!" Which translates to "bad luck," but a better translation would be "get over it, I'll do what I want." She first says it in response to her brother saying he doesn't want her to come with him to the laundromat. She says it again when he gets irritated with her jingling bangles. The next instance of Carmela's personality being shown is when her brother asks her what is taking her so long behind him. She responds, "It is a free country." As you can see from how she responds to her brother, Carmela is kind of a brat.

The illustrations in this book reinforce the text that is next to it. My skills at deciphering Spanish were greatly aided by the illustrations. Google translate could also only do so much to help understand what was being said. When Carmela is describing the vending machine of treats, the book uses the word "caramelos," which in south Texas we would have used the word "dulces" for sweets instead. Thanks to the illustrations I was able to figure out that Carmela was not talking about only carmels, since the machine had pies, ice cream, candy, and cupcakes drawn inside. It also helped to understand what caused Carmela to fall from her scooter and then crush her dandelion. She tried going over the sidewalk and ended up falling off her scooter and landing on top of her dandelion.

Response: I was able to relate to the text because I have younger siblings and they do not always listen to me and a lot of the time they would try to find ways to irritate me, similar to what Carmela was planning for her brother. It was very relatable in that her older brother had to take her with him, now that she was old enough. I also had to have a younger sibling go with me places. This story was a reinforcement of how siblings are with each other. First you try to irritate them, and then they do something really nice and thoughtful for you. When Carmela's brother is at his friends house, she spends the time outside thinking of ways to pester him. Although, after she falls off her scooter, he takes her to the beach where there are a lot of dandelions to make her feel better. This was a really entertaining book. It was amusing every time Carmela told her brother "Mala suerte!"

Conclusion:This book has good examples of figurative language, dialogue, and illustrations. The dialogue allowed you to really understand Carmela and experience her attitudes throughout the book. The illustrations were simple, but very helpful in understanding the text. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to improve their Spanish.

APA Citations:

De la Pena, M. (2018). Los deseos de Carmela. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.