Summary
After a major eyesore in the community causes a bad injury to her beloved abuelo, Sofia springs into action to bring big change to her neighborhood. However, she faces many difficulties when no one wants to help her because she is a Latino child. The rhyme of the text follows Sofia on her journey from beginning to end as she gains the community’s support to create a beautiful new park to replace the dangerous junk pile in her town. But the question is, will she be able to do it?
Theme(s):
Equality, perseverance, and kindness
Personal Response
I enjoyed reading the story because the series books project similar ideas. I think it is a great way to introduce Latin American culture and the difficulties that some face when neighborhoods are not taken care of. This story shows young readers that you’re never too young to accomplish a mission. I recommend everyone to read and connect with this book. Sofia resonated with me because I had a lot of big ideas for things I wanted to accomplish when I was younger and kept trying.
Teaching Ideas
I would have the students turn and talk to collaborate about an idea that they think would change their neighborhood. It could be adding a library, cleaning a park, building a new school, etc. From there, they would work with their groups to create a model of their ideas using common household materials such as paper towel rolls, popsicle sticks, tape, and more. They would then write about how they feel their idea would help their neighborhood and why they chose to build it in that way.
Recommended Reading Level
Birth-PreK, Grade 01, Grade 02
