Great book and very relatable to ELLs. ( )

Book about Guatemala and childhood poverty.

An excellent cross-cultural book that teaches children to appreciate and value their own culture and family circumstances. Juan is a young boy from Guatemala who is abandoned by his parents and lives with his grandmother. He must work shining shoes to help his grandmother but longs to go to school and learn. A great book to help children build self-esteem. ( )

Juan is a seven-year-old Guatemalan boy (although he is more mature than a boy his age) that his mother abandoned to remarry a man who did not want him. He lives at his grandmother’s house, and works as a shoe shiner. Little by little, he grows dissatisfied with his job, and wants to go to school, like the children who pass by him on their way to school. Afraid that his grandmother will refuse, he does not say anything for a while, and instead teaches himself to read with the help of his customers. Still, his yearning for school has not gone away, and when he finally gathers up the courage to ask his grandmother, her answer and understanding come as a pleasant surprise.

This is a remarkable little book. Despite its shortness, the author manages to expose the reader to the geography of mountainous, rural Guatemala, and also to the different culture. The poverty of the country comes through in this book, but I do not know if the economic situation nowadays is still as bad as when the book was published in 1988. In any case, the first-person narrative by young Juan is sure to put young readers or listeners in his shoes. The language is easy to understand, and the author’s description of Juan’s joys and pains feels authentic. The pencil illustrations convey interesting additional information about the culture and the characters. In addition to exposing readers to a different culture, this book also tackles the universal themes of individual responsibility, love, and quest for knowledge. Ages 6-10. Would work well as a read-aloud in first or second grade. ( )

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