Module 3: Just a Minute

Morales, Yuyi. 2003. Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book. Illustrated by Yuyi Morales. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0811837580.

Plot Summary
Señor Calavera, death, comes for Grandma Beetle, but she is not ready to go. Grandma Beetle says, "Just a minute, Señor Calavera, I will go with you right away, I have just ONE house to sweep." This phrase continues on each page, but with an increasing number of tasks to complete in preparation for her own birthday party. Señor Calavera helps with the tasks and joins in the party alongside Grandma Beetle's grandchildren. In the end when Grandma Beetle is ready to leave she finds a note from Señor Calavera saying that he enjoyed the party and to expect him again next year.

Critical Analysis
Just a Minute was wonderfully written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales. The text does not include many cultural markers, but most every aspect of the illustrations reflect Mexican culture. The book also serves as a counting book and each number is presented in both English and Spanish in a large, bold font so that children can easily recognize the number in each language.

Grandma Beetle is preparing for a birthday party so the items mentioned in the story represent foods and activities that would be found in a Mexican birthday party. On one page Grandma Beetle says she is going to make tortillas. On another page she says she needs to fill piñatas with candy. The other foods are not specifically listed, so from the text alone they do not necessarily represent a specific culture. It is the illustrations that indicate what types of fruit and pots of food are being prepared. The only names used are Grandma Beetle and Señor Calavera, which translates to Mr. Skeleton. The name Grandma Beetle does not suggest a specific culture, but the use of Señor Calavera indicates a culture that uses skeletons to represent death.

The bright, colorful illustrations add a lot of depth to the story. Grandma Beetle and her grandchildren have a brown skin tone, some with lighter skin and hair than others. Grandma Beetle's hair is gray. Grandma Beetle wears an apron over her dress, and Señor Calavera wears an apron as well in one of the pictures. The grandchildren dress in a way that any child can relate to with shirts, pants, shorts, dresses, sandals, dress shoes, and sneakers.

Aspects of the house and other items in the illustrations portray Mexican culture. There is a colorful striped rug at the front door, a crocheted doily on a table, and colorful tiles and pictures with engraved metal frames are on the walls. There are seven colorful piñatas and each one is different. Most are animals, but there is even a van piñata. Some of the cooking items were used in the past, but may still be used today. The tea is boiled in clay pots. A comal is warming up on the stove, while corn is being ground in a molino. In one picture the stove is very busy with tamales cooking in a very large pot, other foods cooking in a pot and metal pan, and cake pans in the oven. In the same scene Señor Calavera is adding in a modern feature by using an electric mixer.

More is discovered about the foods in the illustrations. Sliced apples are added to the tea. The fruits being sliced are a watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, and papaya. White cheese rounds are melting on the comal. Tamales are peeking out of a large pot. Various types of individually wrapped candies and suckers fill the piñatas.

At http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/excerpts.php?isbn=0811837580 Yuyi Morales shares information on Just a Minute and her own life. She grew up in Veracruz, Mexico and now lives in California. Morales says, "When I was a child, I had a grandma just like Grandma Beetle: plump and strong, and loving. And like Grandma Beetle, she was a trickster too." She also explains that the birthday parties her mother gave her when she was a child were just like Grandma Beetle's birthday party. The inspiration for Señor Calavera comes from The Day of the Dead skeletons. Morales says "if you could jump into the book and meet Señor Calavera in person, you would find that he is made of crystallized sugar, just like the decorated sugar skulls that children eat during The Day of the Dead celebrations."

Review Excerpts
"This story is a delight. Morales's personification of death is never forbidding or scary, but rather a simple matter of fact. This deceptively simple read-aloud treat has as many layers as an onion, and is every bit as savory." -School Library Journal

Connections
Use Just a Minute for a skeleton themed story time. Other books that can be read for this story time are Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler, The Skeleton in the Closet by Alice Schertle, and Boogie Bones by Elizabeth Loredo. For a craft children can decorate a skeleton mask or put together a skeleton that has move able arms and legs. The templates for these crafts can be found on Yuyi Morales's web site at http://www.yuyimorales.com/just_aminute.htm. They just need to be copied onto card stock and cut out ahead of time.

Module 3: Accidental Love

Soto, Gary. 2006. Accidental Love. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 0152054979.

Plot Summary
Marisa winds up with the wrong cell phone after getting into a fight with her best friend's boyfriend. Marisa meets with the boy, Rene, who has her cell phone and discovers that she likes him, even though he is a nerd. After switching to Rene's school, Marisa gets to know him better and becomes his girlfriend. Marisa slowly becomes a different person while her and Rene undergo many obstacles. The biggest obstacle is Rene's controlling mother. Marisa must go back to her old school after Rene's mother informs school officials that Marisa is lying about living in the neighborhood. Rene joins Marisa at her old school after revealing to his father that his mother is abusive.

Critical Analysis
Different types of cultural markers are present in Accidental Love. Language, names, foods, and musical preference identify Marisa and her family and friends as a Mexican American, but the culture itself is rarely discussed. At one point Marisa does contemplate her culture when she sees her friend Latisha at a basketball game. The text says, "Marisa and Latisha had been close friends in first and second grades, but by third grade they had drifted--Latisha to her black friends at one table in the lunchroom and Marisa to the Latinos hanging out on a grassy hill." Marisa describes Latisha as being loud and having a comb stuck in her Afro.

Other descriptions of people are basic also, focusing more on teenage views rather than cultural appearance. Marisa talks about teasing her own hair, wearing brown lipstick, and long fingernails, which seem to indicate a chola appearance. She never describes her clothes, though, so it is difficult to really know how she looks, except in the end of the story when she loses enough weight to wear dresses again. Rene's appearance is given the most attention since Marisa thinks he looks like a nerd. She complains about his high water pants and white socks with stripes and encourages him to dress better.

Language plays a large role in the text since many Spanish words are incorporated into the story. Some of the words are used to identify others. Marisa's parents call her mi'ja (daughter), she calls her aunt tia, and Rene is her novio (boyfriend). Other words, like pendejo (dummy), tonto (fool), and guey (idiot), are used as insults. Phrases like que linda (how pretty) and y que mas (and what else) are also used. The meaning of the Spanish words can usually be determined from the context of the sentence, but a glossary is also provided at the end of the book. Sometimes English and Spanish words are used that indicate the slang language used in Marisa's neighborhood. An example of this is seen at Halloween when some boys Marisa knows are trick-or-treating at her aunt's house. Some of the words they use are chale (no way), carnal, crib, and tight (as in "You're tight, girl" or "You all right, girl").

Many of the names used can be English or Spanish names, but the characters have Spanish surnames. Marisa's last name is Rodriguez and Rene's is Torres. Mexican foods are present in addition to other foods. Marisa's mom makes tamales, tortillas, albondiga soup, and beans as well as lasagna. The mention of having heated "tortillas wrapped in a dish towel," eating beans with a broken off piece of tortilla, and defrosting tamales add a realistic aspect to the foods. The one mention of music comes when Marisa explains that "her mother was in a good mood, because she was listening to her favorite CD: Linda Ronstadt's Canciones de mi Padre." On this CD Linda Ronstadt sings traditional mariachi songs that come from Mexico. (As I write this my own mom is actually making tortillas, placing the finished ones under a dish towel, and is listening to the same Linda Ronstadt CD. What a coincidence!)

Within the story Rene and Marisa are going to be in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet. Their own story mirrors Romeo and Juliet. Rene's mom does not approve of Marisa and tries to force them apart. Marisa's friends criticise her for switching to a new school and accuse her of believing that she is too good for them. Marisa and Rene have different characteristics than Romeo and Juliet, though. Marisa is a strong, tough girl who stands up for Rene and does not mind getting in fights. Rene is smart, plays chess, and is already planning out his future, which involves attending an ivy league college.

The story is also different from Romeo and Juliet since there is a happy ending. Marisa and Rene are separated from each other when Marisa must return to her old school, but they are reunited when Rene transfers to Marisa's school after moving in with his dad. Both characters have also changed. Marisa is now able to control her temper and cares more about school. Rene is a stronger person and opens up to his father, not allowing his mother to control and abuse him any longer. The happy ending comes rather easily and quickly, though. Within the last pages of the story Marisa is depressed and alone when Rene suddenly appears, in a new outfit, explaining why he is at her school. All is suddenly well again and it even snows, something that never happens in the town.

Review Excerpts
"Occasionally stilted dialogue and clunky writing ("She breathed in and out like a prizefighter") will distract some readers. However, it's hard not to like spunky Marisa and appreciate the fresh point of view she brings to what otherwise might be a typical teen romance." -School Library Journal

"Though the star-crossed-lovers premise is familiar (Soto even weaves in a school production of Romeo and Juliet), the tough-girl/good-guy romance is a refreshing twist, and Marisa and Rene are unique and long-overdue characters in a depiction of romance outside of the chick-lit box." -Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Connections
Share other books written by Gary Soto. Encourage students to write stories or poems about their own neighborhood or teenage experiences.

Young Adult Books
Buried Onions
Crazy Weekend
Jesse
Local News
Mercy on These Teenage Chimps
Pacific Crossing
Petty Crimes
Summer on Wheels
Taking Sides

Poetry Books
Who Will Know Us?: New Poems
Neighborhood Odes
New and Selected Poems
Fire in My Hands

Module 3: The Rainbow Tulip

Mora, Pat. 1999. The Rainbow Tulip. Illustrated by Elizabeth Sayles. New York, NY: Viking. ISBN 0670872911.

Plot Summary
Estelita is a first grade girl who is different from her classmates. Her parents are from Mexico and do not speak English. Estelita's mother is quiet and wears long dresses and no makeup. Estelita loves colors and wants to have all of the spring colors in her May parade tulip costume. She is proud of her costume until she goes to school and sees that she if different. Estelita worries about being the only rainbow tulip, but when she weaves the Maypole with her classmates she concentrates on doing a good job so that everyone will be proud of her. She realizes that although being different is hard, it can be positive.

Critical Analysis
Estelita is the narrator of the story. She says that her parents are from Mexico and do not speak English. Estelita and her brothers speak Spanish at home and English at school. Spanish words are incorporated into the text and are usually translated within the same sentence. Sometimes Spanish words are used with the expectation that they are understood. An example of both of these situations occurs on the first page with the sentence, "My father gives us an abrazo, a hug, and says, "Buenos dias, hijos."" Many of the words and phrases are used more than once so the translation is only provided the first time the word or phrase appears in the story.

Only a few characters are referred to by name. Estelita says that she is called Estelita at home and Stella at school. When she speaks about her parents Estelita calls them mother and father, but when she speaks to them directly she calls them mama and papa. Both Estelita and her mother refer to her aunt as Tia Carmen.

Only two foods are mentioned, cod liver oil and lime sherbet, and they do not necessarily reflect Mexican-American culture. Estelita is given a spoonful of cod liver oil every morning since her mother thinks she is too thin. Estelita enjoys eating lime sherbet as a snack. It is described as being sweet and sour, and Estelita's mother compares sherbet with being different since it too is both sweet and sour.

The illustrations in The Rainbow Tulip use soft colors and lines. Estelita and her family are portrayed with a light, natural skin tone and dark brown hair. The pictures of the mother fit her description from the text. "She does not wear makeup. Her hair is tied in a bun, and her dresses are long. My mother does not wear colors that sing and dance. My mother like to wear black, brown, gray, sometimes light blue." Estelita is not shown in the same formal manner as her mother. She wears blue and pink dresses that only go down to her knees and she wears her hair down.

Nothing in the illustrations of the house or other areas represent Mexican-American culture. Bowls that look ceramic with various designs are included, but these can be used by any culture. The illustrations do hint at a place and an earlier time period, though. The outsides of the buildings indicate that the story is probably taking place in the southwest. In one picture there is a dirt road and a car from the early 1900s. In another there is a sewing machine in the background that operates with a foot pedal. In the author's note the reader learns that the story is based on something that really happened to Mora's mother when she was a child in El Paso, Texas in the 1920s, so the illustrations do match the story.

Review Excerpts
"The scenarios in words and soft-toned pictures show the warm, loving family and also the fun and success at school. At first, the child is ashamed of her quiet, old-fashioned mother, but her parents keep a piece of Mexico at home, and Estelita/Stella comes to value her dual heritage, even though it is hard to be different." -Booklist

"Based on a story from the author's mother's childhood, and perfectly extended by soft, warm pastel drawings framed in white, this tale of family love and support crosses cultural boundaries and may remind youngsters of times when their families made all the difference." -School Library Journal

Connections
Use Rainbow Tulip for story time when the theme is spring. Read it with Did You Hear Wind Sing Your Name?: An Oneida Song of Spring by Sandra De Coteau Orie, Long-Long's New Year! A Story about the Chinese Spring Festival by Catherine Gower, and Skunk's Spring Surprise by Leslea Newman. Before each story share a poem from the book Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems by Francisco Alarcon. For the craft have children make a May Day crown or pole. Instructions and templates for these crafts are available at http://www.first-school.ws/activities/occasions/mayday.htm.