Journey of Dreams

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About Journey Of Dreams

Product description This is the story of how one family survives the Guatemalan army's 'scorched earth' campaign in the 1980s and how, in the midst of tragedy, suspicion and fear, their resilient love and loyalty - and Papa's storytelling - keeps them going. On their harrowing journey as refugees to the United States, the dramatic ebb and flow of events are mirrored in the tapestries of one daughter's dreams. From School Library Journal Grade 5–8—Fleeing their burned village in the Guatemalan highlands, 13-year-old Tomasa, her two brothers, and her storytelling father make their way first to the capital and then north to Mexico City and across another border to Arizona. They reunite with her mother and another brother, who are safe thanks to the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Artistic Tomasa loves to sketch and to re-create her world in her weaving and embroidery. Through her narrative, readers can envision her family and village life as well as the sights of her journey from the mountains to the cities and north to America. This well-paced first-person account is full of suspenseful moments, but also psychologically convincing as the author shows Tomasa consciously burying her own emotions while her younger brother, Manuel, adopts another woman in place of the mother who left him behind to save her 14-year-old from the army. Although Tomasa's journey takes a year, the pace moves along quickly. Still, there is room to recount Guatemalan folktales and show many details of village life as well as the refugee experience. A short background explanation, a glossary, and a map complete this harrowing but ultimately hopeful immigration story based on the author's work with refugees.— Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review An involving read, strong in the celebration of Mayan-inflected folklore and culture. --Financial Times {starred}"Pellegrino's great achievement resides in the authenticity of Tomasa's voice as a Mayan girl. This novel will captivate both Latin American survivors of civil war and their peers. Outstanding." (glossary of Spanish and quiche, map) (Historical fiction. Ya) --Kirkus A modern-day Underground Railroad is the stirring drama narrated by Mayan Tomasa, 13, who in the early 1980s is forced with her family to flee the military burning and slaughter of her mountain village in Guatemala and seek refuge across the border. True to her anguished viewpoint, her present-tense narrative tells of her desperate journey with the coyote guides, those who help and those who betray the fugitives as they cross desert, river, and mountains, and make it to Mexico City and then finally to the Sanctuary Movement in the U.S. Based on author Pelligrino's work with displaced refugees, the personal story is rooted in authentic detail of oppression, escape, and hope. The "dreams" may sometimes be too much: every episode ends with a magical realism connection rooted in Tomasa's culture. More than the local color, readers will be held by the escape adventure, and even more by the searing family drama of separation and the climax of reunion, the kindness and courage that fight the cruelty. -- Hazel Rochman --Booklist Fleeing their burned village in the Guatemalan highlands, 13-year-old Tomasa, her two brothers, and her storytelling father make their way first to the capital and then north to Mexico City and across another border to Arizona. They reunite with her mother and another brother, who are safe thanks to the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Artistic Tomasa loves to sketch and to re-create her world in her weaving and embroidery. Through her narrative, readers can envision her family and village life as well as the sights of her journey from the mountains to the cities and north to America. This well-paced first-person account is full of suspenseful moments, but also psychologically convincing as the author shows Tomasa consciously burying her own emotions while her younger brother, Manuel, adopts another woman in place of the mother who left him behind to save her 14-year-old from the army. Although Tomasa's journey takes a year, the pace moves along quickly. Still, there is room to recount Guatemalan folktales and show many details of village life as well as the refugee experience. A short background explanation, a glossary, and a map complete this harrowing but ultimately hopeful immigration story based on the author's work with refugees.-Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD --School Library Journal Review "A modern-day Underground Railroad is the stirring drama narrated by mayan Tomasa, 13, who in the early 1980s is forced with her family to flee the military burning and slaughter of her mountain village in Guatemala and seek refuge across the border. More than the local color, readers will be held by the escape adventure, and even more by the searing family drama of separation and the climax of reunion, the kindness and courage that fight the cruelty." -- Hazel Rochman Review This well-paced first-person account is full of suspenseful moments, but also psychologically convincing as the author shows Tomasa consciously burying her own emotions while her younger brother, Manuel, adopts another woman in place of the mother who left him behind to save her 14-year-old from the army. Although Tomasa's journey takes a year, the pace moves along quickly. A short background explanation, a glossary, and a map complete this harrowing but ultimately hopeful immigration story based on the author's work with refugees."-Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD Review A heart stopping survival story of a young girl and her family fleeing the war in Guatemala, Journey of Dreams is about every refugee, forced from their home and country by war beyond their power and understanding. This book takes the reader into a little known war in a continent few of us are even aware of. It would sit well in a study of refugees which might include books like Mahtab's Story (Libby Gleeson), Soraya the storyteller (Rosanne Hawke), and the Parvana trilogy (Deborah Ellis). About the Author Marge Pellegrino jumped out of business and into the writing world in 1984. Passionate about sharing the power she's found in words, she leads writers of all ages in workshops that make them think in new ways and discover their own voices. As a teaching artist, Pellegrino has been nominated for the Tucson Pima Arts Council's Lumie Award 2008, Governor's Award 2009, and named Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly, December, 2006. Her Word Journeys program at the Pima County Public Library was a finalist for the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities' Coming Up Taller Award for excellence in after school programming in 2007 and won that distinction in 2008. She lives in Tucson, AZ.