Customer Reviews

Armando and the Blue Tarp School

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In the space of just a few pages, Edith Fine and Judith Josephson bring an unfamiliar world to life: that of the families who make a living by picking through the trash at the Tijuana dump. Education is not taken for granted in this world. When a caring teacher creates a school on a blue plastic tarp, new doors are opened for Armando and the other children. Armando and the Blue Tarp School, inspired by a true story, offers a moving message of hope. I love this book and its unusual illustrations. The story is a must for classrooms and school libraries.

In the book, Armando and the Blue Tarp School the authors Fine and Josephson write with caring and compassion about a forgotten segment of society. The poorest of the poor. With insight and sensitivity they tell the story of a young boy who longs to learn and go to school, but cannot because he must help his father sift though trash for items to sell to support the family. When Armando is finally allowed to go to school, the reader can almost feel his joy. And it is from this moment on the story gains momentum and heart.

Everyone who loves learning will love this book. This book is a must for all library shelves, personal collections and should be required reading in all the schools. Armando and the Blue Tarp School celebrates learning and living and is a story to be read and reread for generations to come. I highly recomend this book.

Armando and the Blue Tarp School is a children's picturebook based on true events. In the 1980's, David Lynch traveled to Mexico and worked with young people who lived in neighborhoods amid mounds of trash. Out of a desire to help them earn a better future, he spread a blue tarp on the ground and began teaching them kindergarten, Mexican culture, and English as a second language, and even brought paint for them to work with. An anonymous reader learned of Lynch's efforts through a newspaper article and donated funds for the area to build a school of its own. Armando and the Blue Tarp School follows young Armando, who must work every day with his father to pick through trash and uncover valuable recyclables, and his desire to learn at the blue tarp school. When a terrible fire destroys Armando's neighborhood, the picture he draws becomes published in the paper and a mysterious benefactor donates the needed funds to create a new school where the blue tarp once stood! David Lynch is portrayed as Senor David in this upbeat children's book about hope for the future. Especially recommended as a way to remind young boys and girls how lucky they are to have the opportunity to learn.

Based on the true story of a former special education teacher who started a school for child trash-pickers in the Tijuana city dump in Mexico, this moving and informative book teaches a number of valuable economics lessons related to poverty, child labor, opportunity cost, and education. The authors do an excellent job communicating the difficult living conditions of the most vulnerable of the poor-children who work rather than go to school and live in shacks alongside the dump. They support their families by picking through trash looking for bottles, cans, clothes, and toys to sell and to use. Not only are the immediate conditions miserable, with the foul smell, heat, noise, and flies, but the longer term prospects of growing up without an education are bleak as well.

Armando, the main character is this book, is one of these children. Yet hope for a different kind of future marches into his life when his parents give him permission to attend a school at the dump that was recently started by Señor David. Armando understands that the decision is not an easy one for his parents, who depend on his income from picking trash. The school consists of little more than a blue tarp spread on the ground and a chalkboard, but it has a teacher and a group of students eager to learn how to read, write, draw, and do math. Armando's talents with drawing later help to turn new adversity into good fortune for his school.

This book makes a tremendous addition to any collection of children's literature that focuses on high quality content. With its developing country setting and the story of the real Señor David Lynch at the back, the book is as realistic as it is inspiring.

I gave Armando & the Blue Tarp School to 3 of my grandnieces/nephews. They all loved it. It started great discussions of schools, life in other communities, the importance of education, & the value of "sticking with it." I definitely recommend this book.