BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rodriguez, Nelson. 2021. COLORFUL MONDAYS: A BOOKMOBILE SPREADS HOPE IN HONDURAS. Ill. Rosana Faria. Grand Rapids, MI. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0-8028-5616-6
PLOT SUMMARY
The colorful bookmobile that travels from town to town, and visits Tegucigalpa every Monday. Luis, a young boy from Villa Nueva, Honduras eagerly awaits this anticipated day as he enjoys the happy stories Nelson and Gerson bring to share to the children of this community. He shares this excitement with his friends and family who could use some happy stories amidst the sad ones this underprivileged area faces regularly.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The main character, Luis, reflects on the struggling times of his community by describing sad stories as large dark clouds. The illustrations directly reflect the mood for the town of Villa Nueva, Honduras through the dark blue hues taking most of the space on the pages and the not so happy facial expressions of the people going about their daily lives carrying jugs of waters, refiling water jugs from the well, making and selling tortillas through a cart set up. The socio-economic status of this country is one of a struggling one. Although the physical landscape of this country is a beautiful tropical place with sea life and vegetation, the economic reality is a difficult one. The illustrations balance the sad with the happy as the story begins with blue and dark moods slowly transitioning to colorful images incorporating culturally rich details of native animals, vegetation, and fruits as the book mobile’s weekly arrival brings joy and turns the sad stories to happy ones. The literacy activities brought by the Bookmobile helped children forget if they were hungry or whether they had shoes or not. This shows the joy the program brought for these children and the community.
Spanish is the cultural language spoken in Honduras and there is mention of Spanish words throughout such as papá, tortillas, abuela, merienda (snack time). Characters’ names are in Spanish as well such as Ana María, Luis, Silvio, Nelson, Gerson. The setting of the beautiful Honduran city represents the characters environment showing the way of life by people walking around, selling tortillas on carts, getting water from the well, enjoying the book mobile set up and watching it leave but leaving happy stories for Luis to tell. The overall quality of this story is a great look into Central American life. It makes you analyze the economic situation the community goes through as well as how children look forward to being able to hold books and enjoy reading stories through the bookmobile. The illustrations accurately portray life in Villa Nueva, Honduras.
REVIEWS/ AWARDS
USBBY 2024 Outstanding International Book List
Skipping Stones Magazine Honor Award in Multicultural and International Books (2024)
Latin American Studies Program Américas Award Commended Title (2024)
BolognaFiere Group Bologna Children’s Book Fair (2024)
Bookstagang Picture Book Guild Best Book in Bookshelf Builders (2023)
From the Publisher: “A beautiful, empowering story about the impact of literacy in underprivileged communities, based on a real bookmobile program in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
CONNECTIONS
Putting on a puppet show for a group of readers would give the students a fresh take on a story. Using Puppets to mimic what the book mobile did for the community would give them first-hand experience of what the children of those programs felt.
I would like for students to search the website of JustWorld International at justworld internationa.org and Asociación Compartir at compartirhonduras.org so they can learn more about the program and possibly get inspired to contribute to their community with a program as such when they get older.
Alexander, Kwame. HOW TO READ A BOOK. ISBN 978-0-06-230781
Capucilli, Alyssa Satin. THE LIBRARY FISH. ISBN 978-1-53447-705-6
Lin, Grace. ONCE UPON A BOOK. ISBN 978-0-316-54107-7
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