Juana Medina
Author of Juana and Lucas
About the Author
Image credit: Juana Medina gives a presentation on the Children's Purple Stage at the National Book Festival, August 31, 2019. Photo by Edmond Joe/For the Library of Congress. By Library of Congress Life - 20190831EJ0284.jpg, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82899172
Series
Works by Juana Medina
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Rhode Island School of Design
- Agent
- Gillian MacKenzie Agency
- Nationality
- Colombia
- Birthplace
- Bogotá, Colombia
- Places of residence
- Bogotá, Colombia
Virginia, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- Colombia
Members
Reviews
This is such a cute book — I adored it! Juana has settled into a comfortable daily routine when her parents tell her a new baby is on the way. And if that's not enough, she's also going to roller-skating camp on the school break. So many changes! But Juana is resilient and has Lucas by her side, so she's ready for anything.
JUANA AND LUCAS: MUCHOS CHANGES is a fun bilingual (English/Spanish) book for early readers. Spanish words are incorporated where an English word could be anticipated, show more and many of the Spanish words contain etymological similarities to the expected English word, so even readers who don't know Spanish can figure out the meaning from context clues. It's a smart strategy for both supporting bilingual readers and encouraging Spanish understanding.
The story is lovely. Readers get glimpses of life and culture in Colombia, and the first-person telling allows readers to follow Juana's emotional arc as well as the plot. Juana's character is beautifully realized — nuanced and identifiable — and Juana's extended community is full of loving, caring people of various ages, an inclusive world I enjoyed visiting. Young readers are sure to want more of Juana's story — luckily there are two books to read back through, plus potential for future books in this series.
JUANA AND LUCAS: MUCHOS CHANGES is a delight! If you work with beginner readers, be sure to add this book to your collection. show less
JUANA AND LUCAS: MUCHOS CHANGES is a fun bilingual (English/Spanish) book for early readers. Spanish words are incorporated where an English word could be anticipated, show more and many of the Spanish words contain etymological similarities to the expected English word, so even readers who don't know Spanish can figure out the meaning from context clues. It's a smart strategy for both supporting bilingual readers and encouraging Spanish understanding.
The story is lovely. Readers get glimpses of life and culture in Colombia, and the first-person telling allows readers to follow Juana's emotional arc as well as the plot. Juana's character is beautifully realized — nuanced and identifiable — and Juana's extended community is full of loving, caring people of various ages, an inclusive world I enjoyed visiting. Young readers are sure to want more of Juana's story — luckily there are two books to read back through, plus potential for future books in this series.
JUANA AND LUCAS: MUCHOS CHANGES is a delight! If you work with beginner readers, be sure to add this book to your collection. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
A book with great heart. Juana is a girl in Colombia, and she loves many things (including her dog Lucas). She has an exuberant voice that makes her extremely likable. She also makes Bogota sound fabulous. She doesn't like learning "the English", until she discovers that her mother and grandparents are planning a trip to Spaceland in Florida, but she won't be able to go unless her English grade improves. Then she's all in. She speaks English whenever she can, and when she does finally go to show more Spaceland she's unstoppable. show less
This is a charming early chapter book about a young girl named Juana growing up in her beloved Bogotá, Columbia. The text is very visually appealing, and sprinkled throughout with images, graphic features, and Spanish words -- particularly cognates.
Juana is just like any other schoolgirl -- she gets in trouble on the school bus for blowing bubblegum bubbles the size of her head, she dotes on her dog Lucas, adores her family, and struggles with certain subjects in school, namely English. show more Whyyyyyyy does she have to learn English, particularly when it is so hard and its words are hard to say and not nearly as logical as Spanish? But her family offers examples of why English will be good to learn - Juana's Tía Cris tells her she'll be able to sing all of the great songs that are in English (Juana grumbles that there are tons of great songs in Spanish); the brothers who run the corner market want her to be able to translate their store signs so that tourists can read them; and Abue, best of all, convinces her to learn English because he is taking the family to Florida to visit Spaceland! Juana's big-picture reward for learning English is great:
Juana is just like any other schoolgirl -- she gets in trouble on the school bus for blowing bubblegum bubbles the size of her head, she dotes on her dog Lucas, adores her family, and struggles with certain subjects in school, namely English. show more Whyyyyyyy does she have to learn English, particularly when it is so hard and its words are hard to say and not nearly as logical as Spanish? But her family offers examples of why English will be good to learn - Juana's Tía Cris tells her she'll be able to sing all of the great songs that are in English (Juana grumbles that there are tons of great songs in Spanish); the brothers who run the corner market want her to be able to translate their store signs so that tourists can read them; and Abue, best of all, convinces her to learn English because he is taking the family to Florida to visit Spaceland! Juana's big-picture reward for learning English is great:
"And the number-one thing I've learned from coming here to Spaceland in Florida in the U.S. of A. is that I'd love to keep on traveling! Even if Astroman didn't seem to care much about my stories, other people did. Because I speak English so well, I've been able to have fun with a lot of new people and make a lot of new friends. And who wouldn't like for that to happen all around the world?show less
The number-two thing I've learned is that if I want to travel and make new friends, I will need to learn a gazillion more languages besides English and español! That's what Abue says. I don't know if there will be enough espacio between my pigtails for French and Chinese and Italian and Farsi and Portuguese and all of the other languages. Maybe it's time to go back to Columbia and ask Lucas what he thinks about that."
Juana’s mother gets her hair restyled, is wearing perfume and has been spending a lot of time with a new friend named Luis. It’s possible Mami will marry Luis but Juana wonders why Mami needs to get married? It will mean a lot of changes: a move to a new house, new family members, and living with Luis after years of just Juana and Mami. Love Juana’s voice, cheerful and endearingly childlike. Some of her phrasing sounds like something you would hear a real child say. At her most serious show more moments, her childlike worries (needing to still be Mami’s favorite person) are authentically voiced. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 12
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 857
- Popularity
- #29,858
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 106
- ISBNs
- 62
- Languages
- 3
