A young boy with two homelands and a delightful sense of wonder comes to life in Jorge Argueta’s first collection of poems for children. Young Jorgito lives in San Francisco’s Mission District, but he hasn’t forgotten his native El Salvador. He recalls the volcanoes, the tasty cornmeal pupusas, and his grandmother’s stories. As he changes from timid newcomer to seasoned city dweller, Jorgito’s memories and new adventures form a patchwork of dreams — the movie in his pillow — that is perfectly suited to his new bicultural identity. Gr 3-6-Poems in Spanish and in English communicate the poet's memories of being a boy in El Salvador and in San Francisco. "Here chickens come/in plastic bags/Over there/they slept beside me." The lines capture the pleasures and difficulties of living in each country, but mostly, they capture the sense of being a child in the city. "My bicycle/is a dragon/dancing/cumbias/all the way/to El Salvador." Small notes next to the poems explain potentially unfamiliar terms (the cumbia is a Latin dance). Argueta has published several books of poetry, but this is his first for children. G-mez's rich and bright paintings fill every spread with the same joy and literal humor that she used in Juan Felipe Herrera's The Upside Down Boy/El ni-o de cabeza (Children's Book, 2000). The style is almost primitive, and combines with the "handwritten" typeface to make the book feel immediate and comfortable. The author's introduction and the artist's title-page map of North America give context to the poet's experiences, making this an appealing choice to fill the need for books about Salvadore-os, as well as an excellent addition to any poetry collection.-Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Gr. 4-8. Along with an estimated 500,000 Salvadorans who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s, the poet Jorge Argueta and his family fled the civil war in El Salvador and came to live in America. These 21 poems recount his childhood experiences of being an immigrant and having dual homelands, with roots in El Salvador and a new life in San Francisco's Mission District. In a format very similar to that of Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcon's award-winning bilingual poetry collections, each poem is closely twinned on the page with its translation and embraced by Gomez's illustrations, which flood each spread with a rich rainbow of colors, rippling with vibrant images of magic realism. Argueta's first book for children will add multicultural depth and historical authenticity to any poetry collection. Annie Ayres Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Used Book in Good Condition