Digging for Words

Jose Alberto Gutierrez

and the Library He Built

Schwartz & Wade Books

(Penguin Random House)

(pub. 9.8.2020) 

40 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Angela Burke Kunkel
       and illustrator: Paolo Escobar

C haracter: Jose Alberto Gutierrez

O verview:

 

"In the city of Bogata, in the barrio of La Nueva Gloria, there live two Joses. One is a boy who dreams of Saturdays-- that's the day he gets to visit Paradise, the library. The second Jose is a garbage collector. From dusk until dawn, he scans the sidewalks as he drives, squinting in the dim light, searching household trash for hidden treasure . . . books! Some are stacked in neat piles, as if waiting for José. Others take a bit more digging. Ever since he found his first book, Anna Karenina, years earlier, he's been collecting books--thick ones and thin ones, worn ones and almost new ones-- to add to the collection in his home. And on Saturdays, kids like little Jose run to the steps of Paradise to discover a world filled with books and wonder.

With an evocative text by a debut author, and rich, stunning illustrations from an up-and-coming Colombian illustrator, here is a celebration of perseverance, community, and the power of books."

T antalizing taste: 

"Jose walks home from the garage. He pauses on the step to unlock the door, balancing books in the crook of his arm.

 A few pages to read, a few hours to  dream, and then it is a new day. Tonight, he revisits Macondo, a magical village deep in the jungles of Colombia, and he is lost in a place where time moves by its own rules."

And something more:  The Author's Note explains that "over ten million people live in the city of Bogota, Colombia. There are only nineteen libraries. There was no library in La Nueva Gloria barrio until 2000, when Jose Alberto Gutierrez took matters in his own hands.

A lifelong Bogota resident, Gutierrez is a former garbage collector who is known as the Lord of the Books... Today, in addition to running his library, Gutierrez directs the foundation he established, La Fuerza de las Palabras (The Strength of Words), which provides reading material to schools, organizations, and libraries across Colombia... Gutierrez himself went back to school in his fifties. It took  him three years to earn his high school diploma, but in building his library, he  empowered himself as  well as others."

Paper Son

The Inspiring Story of
Tyrus Wong,
Immigrant and Artist

Schwartz & Wade Books
40 pages 
(9.24.2019)

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Julie Leung
      and illustrator: Chris Sasaki

 
C haracter: Tyrus Wong

O verview: 
     "Before he became Tyrus Wong, he was a nine-year-old boy on a ship who left behind his mother and homeland for an unknown place his father called Gold Mountain.
      Before he was the creative force behind Walt Disney's Bambi, he was a school janitor who worked nights, painting the floors with a mop as though it was his paintbrush. 
      Before he mesmerized animators around the world with his unique style and generous spirit, he was a 'paper son.'"

T antalizing taste: 
     "At last, they arrived at Angel Island.
      His father, who had been in America before, cleared immigration quickly.
      But the boy was held back.

      Scared and alone, Geng Yeo was taken to a wooden house filled with  strangers.
     There, he waited.

     Days turned to weeks.
     This new land was not what he expected.
     The streets were not lined with gold.
     The barracks were crowded and dirty.
     He missed his father very much.

     There was no drawing paper.
     No ink. No paint.
     He watched the sun move slowly across the sky,
     always arching back toward the home he'd left behind." 

And something more: Julie Leung's Author's Note explains that "From 1910 to 1940, over 170,000 Chinese were processed through Angel Island Immigration Station outside San Francisco Bay. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of them were paper sons and daughters, among them Tyrus Wong and his father. From those humble beginnings, Tyrus would go on to graduate from Otis Art Institute with honors. In a time when most Chinese immigrants worked as manual laborers, this was no small feat."  
     From where I live, I can see Angel Island which is now a state recreation park and historical site. It's powerful to think of the history and experiences of the thousands of immigrants who arrived there, "the Ellis Island of the West." And, as we are all self-isolating with the COVID-19 pandemic, I think of this young boy waiting alone in "a house full of strangers." I treasure our ways of being able to connect to each other virtually, and hope we too can help anyone feeling alone.

16 Words

William Carlos Williams
& "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Schwartz & Wade
(pub. 9.24.2019) 
 40 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Lisa Roger
      and illustrator:  Chuck Groenink

 
C haracter: William Carlos Williams

O verview: 
     "A wheelbarrow.
      A drizzle of rain.
      Chickens scratching in the damp earth.

Open this oh-so-simple picture book and discover how William Carlos Williams turned the everyday things he saw outside a window into his greatest poem."

T antalizing taste: 
     "Dr. Williams depends on his doctor's bag to carry the tools he needs.
     Along with his stethoscope and syringes, he carries a pen. A pen for writing prescriptions. A pen for crafting poems.
     Writing poems brings Dr. Williams joy, and he fits in his writing around his doctoring...
     He writes about trees, a fire engine, cats, and plums.
     He chooses the words for his poetry as carefully as he examines his patients."

And something more: The Author's Note explains that "as a young man, Williams had wanted to be an athlete, but he collapsed after a high school race  and was found to have a heart condition. He was despondent. 'Like a bolt out of the blue,' his first poem came to him:

     A black, black cloud
     flew over the sun
     driven by fierce flying
     rain.

He felt such happiness that 'from that moment I was a poet.'"