Niños: Poems for the Lost Children of Chile

by María José Ferrada, María Elena Valdez (Illustrator), Lawrence Schimel (Translator)

Overview

On September 11, 1973, a military coup plunged Chile into seventeen long years of dictatorial rule. Only the return of democracy could reveal the full horrors of Augusto Pinochet’s regime: 3,197 people dead or disappeared—including thirty-four children under the age of fourteen.

This book is a stirring memorial to those victims and to the cost of extremism. Thirty-four poems—one for each child lost—consider the diverse hopes of these fragile young lives. From Alicia to Jaime, Héctor to Paola, Soledad to Rafael, they were brave and creative, thoughtful and strong. In these pages, some children watch for the changing seasons. Some listen for new sounds on rainy afternoons. And some can’t wait for their next birthday.

Featuring gentle, emotive poems and soft, pastel-toned illustrations, Niños is an unforgettable tribute to the children of Pinochet’s Chile and all those threatened by political violence across the world.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802855671
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Series:	Stories from Latin America (SLA)
Pages:	76
Sales rank:	666,842
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	780L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 18 Years

About the Author

Lawrence Schimel has written or translated over 200 books, including Niños, Different, and 9 Kilometers (all Eerdmans). His works have received many awards, including a PEN Translates Award and the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honor. Lawrence lives in Madrid, Spain. Follow him on Twitter @lawrenceschimel.

Editorial Reviews

02/08/2021

Through short poems, Ferrada (Mexique: A Refugee Story from the Spanish Civil War) honors the memories of the 34 children who were among the victims of General Pinochet’s 17-year regime in Chile, which began in 1973. Many of the poems, each titled with one child’s name, imagine an encounter with a small, precious part of nature: seasons, a bird, the moon’s reflection in a glass of water. A poem titled “Jessica” starts, “She devoted that day to watching the ants,” which parade, carrying crumbs, across a table. Jessica crumbles bread for them and leaves a tiny note with it: “A gift, for next winter.” Multimedia drawings in muted shades by Valdez flash with the occasional spark of yellow, as in the poem in which a child named Susana watches a town’s lights turn off: “It’s like watching sunsets/ lightning bugs/ tiny lighthouses.” Dedicated to “the memory that helps us defeat monsters,” the childhoods that Ferrada imagines for these young victims of violence—childhoods in which nothing bad happens, and there’s enough time for each to do whatever they like—feel both poignant and haunting. Ages 7–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 04/01/2021

Gr 3 Up—On September 11, 1973, a military coup in Chile led to a 17-year dictatorship. A haunting introduction explains that 3,197 people were killed during this time and 34 were children under the age of 14. Ferrada and Valdez provide an homage to childhood and life that gives a voice to the deceased children. Each poem is titled with the name of a child who was killed during General Pinochet's regime, and every child's full name and age are listed in the back matter. Ferrada's language and choice of form—free verse translated from the original Spanish—flows well and captures the personalities of the featured children. Poems for the children who died very young are sweet and short. For example, five-month-old Raúl liked the sound of his mother calling him "little bird." The natural world is a common thread, enhancing the sense of wonder, curiosity, creativity, and inventiveness of childhood. The repetition of the theme also connects the experiences of these children to those around the world. The mixed-media art uses watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and colored pencils to create a soft and dreamlike palette. White space is incorporated well and allows the poems to shine. VERDICT A heartfelt volume emphasizing innocence in the face of continuing political violence, this #OwnVoices work is a must-purchase for poetry collections serving young patrons.—Rachel Zuffa, Case H.S., Racine, WI

School Library Journal

★ 2021-01-27
An homage to the children killed during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

On Sept. 11, 1973, the democratically elected government of Chile was overthrown by a violent military coup, supported by the CIA. A right-wing authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for the next 17 years. Only when democracy returned to Chile did the world find out how many had died at the hands of the regime. Among that number were 34 children under the age of 14. Ferrada has written a tender poem for each one of these children—most with an uplifting nature theme—as a way of naming them and remembering them. The effect is to reclaim their childhoods: Luz is “a collector of sounds”; Gabriel “likes to imagine that the stars are holes in the sky.” Chillingly, their full names and ages are listed at the end along with the notation killed or, in one case, disappeared. Some were but a few months old; many were just preschoolers. Originally published in Spanish in 2013 for adults, the book is now being reissued for children accompanied by soft-edged artwork done in watercolors, graphite, pastels, charcoal, and colored pencils that lends an ethereal quality. The author points out the importance of telling this story, “knowing that at this moment, many children feel afraid, suffer tragedies, and even lose their lives because of political violence.”

A book to be read and remembered: a tribute to children whose lives were lost to forces not of their own creation. (Poetry. 8-adult)

Kirkus Reviews