Whether used to show the plight of migrant workers or the pride Hispanic laborers feel in their heritage, this is an important book.?Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WAĬopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. The touching elegy for Cesar Chavez successfully imparts the impact of a heroic man on his people. The sound of the poems will draw them in. This is a book that begs to be read aloud to all students, whether they are Spanish speaking or not. The colors are brilliant, and the scope has a certain larger-than-life sense to it. Silva's vibrant, double-page, gouache illustrations are reminiscent of the artwork of Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. Zubizarreta's English translations are informed and graceful, but predictably cannot match the Spanish originals in rhythm, assonance, or meter. Each letter is matched with a Spanish word (for example, 'Arboles' for 'A') and accompanied by a poem in both Spanish and English that describes how the plant, fruit, vegetable, person, or feeling functions in the lives of these workers. My gratitude to Suni and Simón, for allowing this homage to César Chávez and all campesinos to be as inspiring as his example and their lives.PreSchool-Grade 5?An alphabet book with exceptional illustrations and excellent poetry that gives voice to the experience of Hispanic agricultural workers.

Suni's unique voice and her masterful compositions have allowed the words in this book to transcend their birth as poems becoming unforgettable songs.

It has given me unsurpassable joy to sign this book for golden anniversaries of grandparents and for birthday gifts, for quinceañeras, newborn babies and babies yet to be born, realizing that in each case the book is a symbol of the strength, the resilience, the determination, the dignity and the profound love of family of those who work in the fields and whose labor allows us all to live. Simón Silva, who knew intimately the life in the fields during his childhood and has drawn from the heritage of the great Mexican muralists provided strong and magnificent illustrations that have made this book the true homage to the farm workers lives and struggles that I dreamt to create.

The poems of Gathering the Sun were born out of these enriching experiences. I have described my work with farm working parents, and the learning I derived from it, in my memoirs, Vivir en dos idiomas. I have described the academic results of sharing high quality children's books with Migrant parents and inviting them to create books with their children in Pájaro Valley, California in the book A Magical Encounter: Use of Latino Literature in the Classroom. Some of the most heartening experiences of my life have been my work with Migrant Farm Working families.

Gathering the sun by alma flor ada