Carmen Learns English

I have to admit, I did not love this book.  While I appreciate the author, Judy Cox's, intent, I am not a fan of multicultural books written by people who are not either a part of the ethnic group about which they are writing or embedded in that culture.  The illustrations in ink, watercolor and acrylics by Angela Dominguez, however, are engaging and full of emotion.


The story follows the experience of a Spanish speaking kindergartner named Carmen who is nervous about attending school in English.  The themes are pretty standard--she is nervous about speaking English in class, she misunderstands some of the words used in class and has trouble pronouncing others, a couple of times she is made fun of, ... The author attempts to use code-switching, but it is stilted and awkward--not at all natural.  The feelings experienced by the main character, Carmen, feel superficial and forced. 


The one element threaded throughout the story was that of Carmen going home and teaching her younger sister, Lupita, the little bit of English that she learned at school each day.  Had that been explored more and made the main focus of the story, I would have liked the book much more.

Some ideas for the ESL classroom: Students could discuss and journal about their first days of school and how they felt.   A comparison/contrast essay comparing the students' first days of school to Carmen's could be crafted using a Venn diagram as a pre-writing tool.  Students could also write about what they have taught their families at home after learning something fun at school.  Graphing could be explored using words that are hard for students to pronounce in English.  Teachers might pull some words from those that Carmen struggles with and add a few that their own students have difficulty saying.  A graph would be made on chart paper.  Then, students can vote using sticky notes for the top three most difficult words in English to pronounce.  Activities would then be based on the graph.

Happy reading!
Jacquie