![]() The next minute the rebels are coming through as well, looking for food and aid. One minute you have strange soldiers coming through the village on the hunt for rebels. Really, is it any wonder that Carlos is entranced by the freedom of the soldiers that enter his small village? The year is 1981 and in Chopan, Guatemala things are tense. He has the round face of an owl and he tends to do whatever it is his mother requires of him with very little objection. Gripping and good, horrifying and beautifully wrought, if you’re gonna read just one children’s book on a real world reign of terror, why not go with this one? True, I knew that Caminar was a verse novel and that gave me hope, but would it be enough? Fortunately, when the time came to pick it up it sucked me in from the very first page. Seems pretty silly to say that I thought a book chock-full o’ genocide would be a snorefest, but I’ve been burned before. I’ll confess to you that when I first encountered Caminar by Skila Brown I heard it was about a kid surviving Guatemala’s Civil War and I instantly assumed it would be boring. Serious works of fiction do well when award season comes along, but that’s only because those few that garner recognition are incredibly difficult to write. ![]() ![]() ![]() Not unheard of certainly, but it definitely doesn’t crop up as often as, say, stories about cupcakes or plucky orphans that have to defeat evil wizards. Not the most common theme in children’s books these days. ![]()
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