My Very Own Room/Mi propio cuartito

In my opinion, this book is very good for students in the elementary age group. The illustrations, plot, and multilingualism all help the author to portray the story. The illustrations give context clues to the Spanish words in the book which can help readers. For example, when the author mentions her "abuela", there is an illustration of her grandmother. The illustrations of the closet that is turned into her room and the chaos in her house also show her strong want for her own space. The plot of the story, wanting to have your own space, is something that children from large families can understand is something that can be shown to children from smaller families to help them understand. For example, she shares a room with her five show more brothers and wants "a place that I can call my own" with an illustration depicting that "there was aways a long line for the bathroom". This plot is relatable to almost everyone, as everyone wants a place to be there own ,but it can make others feel grateful that they have more than a closet. Finally, the multilingualism helps both ELL students understand the book as well as helping English-speaking students to learn Spanish. Even the book's title "My Very Own Room/Mi prop cuartito" helps the author to portray the story since the main character comes from a Spanish-speaking household. This book can help students to see different cultures and be thankful for the space they have. The main idea that although family is important, everyone needs some space is evident in the book. show less

In my opinion this is a good book for a couple of reasons. First, I like that the book is bilingual. Each page has the words written in English on one side of the page and Spanish on the other. For example, when the girl’s mother told her that she could use the storage room as her own bedroom. The girl said, “Mama, it’s perfect!” and in the Spanish translation she said, “Mama, es perfecto!” I also like this book because the main character is very believable. She is a young girl that has five brothers that she has to share a room with. She longs to have her own room and to have some privacy from her brothers. This is a very relatable character for any children who have had to share a room with their sibling. In the beginning show more of the book she says, I was getting too big for this…I was tired of sharing a room with my five little brothers. More than anything in the whole world I wanted a room of my own.” The overall big idea of this story that sometimes in order to get what you want you have to be patient and work for it. In the story, the girl had to wait a long time before she could have her own room. She also had to work in order to get the room she wanted. She had to move boxes, paint the room, find a bed, and save blue stamps so she could buy a lamp. When her room was finally finished she “felt like the luckiest, happiest little girl in the world.” She said that, “everyone in the family had helped to make her wish come true.” show less

In my opinion, this is a great book that could be read to students or have in a classroom. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book was because of the way the writing was set up. On each page, there was a paragraph written in English and directly underneath the same paragraph was written in Spanish. This book would be perfect to read to a class of ELL students because they can follow along with the Spanish words and compare them to the English words. Another reason I enjoyed this story is because there were pictures on all of the pages that followed along with the story and allowed readers to see what this girl and her family in the story would look like. Last, this story is about a family of 8, 5 boys, 1 girl, and a mother and a father show more all living in a 2 bedroom house that is very crowded and the young girl does not have her own space for her to be herself. This story would be able to relate to young elementary aged girls who may be going through changes where they want to have a place to be their own. At the end of the story, the young girl and her mother find her a spot of her own after they clean out their attic and make a small room for her. The main message of this story is family and about immigrants who may not have the space needed for a large family, but somehow still being happy and making do with what they do have. show less

In my opinion this is a wonderful book for three reasons. The book itself is bilingual, providing the text in both Spanish and English. I think that this would be great to have in a classroom with ELL students because they would have both their native language and English on each page. This can help the to develop their English. I also felt that despite the fact that it was bilingual, it was very descriptive. I thought that the translation might make the meaning or language less descriptive, however this was not the case. My favorite description was of the lamp that the little girl purchased for her private room, “It was as dainty as a beautiful ballerina.” I felt that it was a way that the author effectively clarified exactly what show more she wanted the reader to visualize. The third reason I enjoyed this book was the illustrations. Without the pictures, the book would have been missing so much. In the illustrations you were able to see the character’s emotion as well as visualize what the author was saying through the text. My only concern about this book is that I did not find much of a moral to the story, nor do I believe it would be very relatable for students. Otherwise, it is good picture book. show less

I like this book for several reasons. One reason I like this book is the plot. Many young children around this age want their own room because they are becoming more independent. This situation allows young children to connect to the story more. Another reason I like this book is the writing and language. The story flowed well by giving the reader a little background knowledge to start and moving into the problem and solution. The story is written in two languages, English and Spanish. This allows students to practice learning both languages if they are working toward that. The message of this book is to not give up on your dreams. The girl in the story wanted a space of her own and found a way to make it happen with the help of her family.

I thought this was a very cute and sweet book. This little girl feels very crowded and overwhelmed in her house with all of her siblings and family members, but she soon gets her wish and gets a room of her very own. Once she has a room of her own, she realizes how much she really loves having her family all around her. http://www.amadairmaperez.com/books.php

The touching tale of a little girl who lives in a house with her family of eight, plus the occasional additional family who stays with them until they find jobs and get a home of their own. Unfortunately, she has to share her room with her six little brothers, and sometimes she wakens to find herself barely able to breathe because the baby has crawled out of his crib and on top of her! Finally she is able to persuade her mother to let her have a little tiny corner that Mami was going to use for storage and make it her own room.
In both English and Spanish, this is sure to be a huge addition to any library with Hispanic readers.