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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Upside Down Boy / El Niño de Cabeza
Bilingual English/Spanish. The Upside Down Boy is award-winning poet Juan Felipe Herrera's engaging memoir of the year his migrant family settled down so that he could go to school for the first time.
Juanito is bewildered by the new school, and he misses the warmth of country life. Everything he does feels upside down. He eats lunch when it's recess; he goes out to play when it's time for lunch; and his tongue feels like a rock when he tries to speak English. But a sensitive teacher and loving family help him to find his voice and make a place for himself in this new world through poetry, art, and music.
Juan Felipe Herrera's playful language and the colorful, magical art of Elizabeth Gómez capture the universal experience of children entering a new school feeling like strangers in a world that seems upside down-at first.
Book Details
- Publisher: Children's Book Press (CA)
- Publish Date: Jan 1st, 2007
- Pages: 32
- Language: Spanish
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.50in - 7.80in - 0.10in - 0.30lb
- EAN: 9780892392179
- Recommended age: 01-05
- Categories: • Biography & Autobiography - Cultural & Regional• Hispanic & Latino
About the Author
Juan Felipe Herrera is the son of farmworkers and a graduate of UCLA, Stanford, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. For over fifty years, he has dedicated his life to poetry, community, art, and teaching. He served as the Poet Laureate of the United States and of California, and he's written more than thirty books across various genres. His awards include the National Book Critics' Circle Award, the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the LA Times Robert Kirsch Award, a Latino Hall of Fame Award, a Pushcart Prize, UCLA Chancellor's Medal, and the UC-Riverside Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2024. He lives in Fresno, California, with his wife, poet Margarita Robles.
Elizabeth Gómez is an internationally exhibited painter, widely acclaimed for her brilliant use of color and fantastical imagery. Her artwork for The Upside Down Boy by Juan Felipe Herrera was praised for its "delightful humor" and "colorful metaphor." A native of Mexico City, she now lives in Redwood City, California, with her husband and children.
Praise for this book
"The Upside Down Boy is more than good--it's excellent. It is... a celebration of family, and of the importance of a frank dialogue between parents and children. [Elizabeth Gómez]'s multicolored, fantastical pictures, with their vibrant colors and echoes of Marc Chagall... enrich the text with all kinds of humorous details." -- Newsweek en Español
"Juan Felipe Herrera's story--the product of stream of consciousness recollections from his third grade experience--makes for a warm and vivid children's book... Elizabeth Gómez illustrates with an equal flair for colorful metaphor." -- The Bloomsbury Review
Texas Bluebonnet Award Shortlist - Texas Library Association (TLA)