A Movie in My Pillow/Una Pelicula En Mi Almohada: Poems/Poemas

Gr 3-6-Poems in Spanish and in English communicate the poet's memories of being a boy in El Salvador and in San Francisco. ""Here chickens come/ in plastic bags/ Over there/ they slept beside me."" The lines capture the pleasures and difficulties of living in each country, but mostly, they capture the sense of being a child in the city. ""My bicycle/ is a dragon/ dancing/ cumbias/ all the way/ to El Salvador."" Small notes next to the poems explain potentially unfamiliar terms (the cumbia is a Latin dance). Argueta has published several books of poetry, but this is his first for children. G omez's rich, bright paintings fill every spread with the same joy and literal humor that she used in Juan Felipe Herrera's The Upside Down Boy/El nino de cabeza (Children's Book, 2000). The style is almost primitive, and combines with the ""handwritten"" typeface to make the book feel immediate and comfortable. The author's introduction and the artist's title-page map of North America give context to the poet's experiences, making this an appealing choice to fill the need for books about Salvadorenos, as well as an excellent addition to any poetry collection. Appropriate for all collections and bookstores. Nina Lindsay, Oakland P.L., CA