Amelia's Road

by Linda J. Altman, Enrique O. Sanchez (Illustrator)

Overview

A girl from a migrant worker family overcomes the hardship of moving by creating a special place for herself.

Amelia Luisa Martinez hates roads. Los caminos, the roads, take her migrant worker family to fields where they labor all day, to schools where no one knows Amelia's name, and to bleak cabins that are not home.

Amelia longs for a beautiful white house with a fine shade tree in the yard, where she can live without worrying about los caminos again. Then one day, Amelia discovers an "accidental road." At its end she finds an amazing old tree reminiscent of the one in her dreams. Its stately sense of permanence inspires her to put her own roots down in a very special way.

The richly colored illustrations bring to life the landscape of California's Central Valley farmland. Amelia's Road is an inspirational tale about the importance of home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781880000274
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	09/01/1993
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	240,996
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Linda Jacobs Altman is the author of Amelia's Road, published by Lee & Low, and named a "Choices" selection by the Cooperative Children's Book Center. Altman, who lives in Clearlake, California, frequently writes for the educational market.

Enrique O. Sanchez has illustrated numerous award winning children's books, including Lee & Low's Abuela's Weave, Amelia's Road, and Confetti. A native of the Dominican Republic, he splits his time between his homes in Bass Harbor, Maine and Miami, Florida.

Editorial Reviews

"Altman's first picture book provides an affecting and ultimately hopeful look at a transient way of living that will be unfamiliar to most of her audience. Sanchez's richly textured acrylic paintings deftly portray the arduous daily routine of migrant workers as well as the wide range of Amelia's emotions." — Publishers Weekly

"What will stay with kids is the physical sense of what it's like to work and move all the time. . . The yearning in the story is palpable: the dream of what many long for and others take for granted — a settled home, white and tidy, with a fine old shade tree growing in the yard. Security." — Booklist

"A spare, unsentimental, empathetic picture of a quietly courageous child making the best of difficult necessity. Sanchez provides handsome acrylic paintings in a monumental, fresco-like style that emphasizes these characters' dignity and humanity." — Kirkus Reviews

"An important title for any library serving migrant populations, Amelia's Road should be a welcome addition almost anywhere. Useful in a variety of educational units, it works equally well as a read-aloud or read-alone." — School Library Journal

CCBC Choices - Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

From the Publisher

This story about the daughter of migrant farm workers is, in PW's words, ``an affecting and ultimately hopeful look at a transient way of living.'' Ages 3-10. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

K-Gr 3-A poignant yet gentle portrayal of the lives of migrant children. Constantly on the move, Amelia's family records events by crops not dates, carries with them only what will fit in the car, and are never anywhere long enough to feel at home. The girl longs for a place to stay, a place where she belongs. Teachers rarely bother to learn her name, so when Mrs. Ramos does so, it is special. The child's picture of a white house with a big shade tree earns a beautiful red star. On the way home, she discovers a road leading to a tree just like the one she drew. She visits this place often, and buries a small metal box filled with her treasures there when she must leave. For the first time in her life, Amelia has a home place. The acrylic-on-canvas illustrations have a folk-art quality that works well with this story. The canvas texture shows through the paint to add an almost tactile roughness of hard labor while rich colors capture the harvest crops at their succulent best. An important title for any library serving migrant populations, Amelia's Road should be a welcome addition almost anywhere. Useful in a variety of educational units, it works equally well as a read-aloud or read-alone.-Jody McCoy, Casady School, Oklahoma City

School Library Journal