Customer Reviews

Becoming Naomi Leon (Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Commended (Awards))

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Becoming Naomi Leon is one of the best children's books that I have read in many years. It is the touching story of a bi-cultural brother and sister abandoned by thier mother and living in their Grandmother's trailer named Baby Beluga in Lemon Tree, California. Naomi is a shy, quiet girl who carves soap into animals and makes lists. Owen is an FLK (Funny Looking Kid) who dreams of bicycles and wears tape on his clothes for comfort. Grandma is a fiesty, postive thinking, loving woman who tries her best to expose the children to their Mexican culture. They live in relative happiness until one day, their mother shows up. She devotes her time and gifts to Naomi, ignoring Owen in spite of his obvious desire to have her love.

As Naomi's mother spends more time in Lemon Tree, her motives for coming to see her children become threatening and Grandma and the wonderful Mexican neighbors band together to protect the children.

Becoming Naomi Leon is eloquent and moving story of an extended family, a mother that is a danger to her children, a hunt for a father that takes you to Oaxaca and the beauty there. It is simple and elegant; painful and sweet. This book will touch your heart and show you love in it's purest form.

Pam Munoz Ryan has written an ageless and beautiful story that will stay with me for a very long time.

"Esperanza Rising" was okay. It wasn't the best book I'd ever read, nor did it leave an indelible mark on my heart and mind. After reading it through I felt that author Pam Munoz Ryan was a fine n' dandy writer, but that it was probably unlikely that she'd produce a book that would really make me sit up and take notice. When I start reading a children's book with a mild prejudice already established in my mind (as there was when I picked up "Becoming Naomi Leon") it takes remarkably good writing to bash that prejudice into soft mushy pulp. And bash this book did. By its end I was flabbergasted. I went into this novel with the vague dread that it would read like so many other works of fiction that are ostensibly "good" for children. I worried that it would be beautifully written and dull as day old dishwater. Instead, it was interesting, bright, cheery, but with just enough reality and cynicism to make you feel that Naomi's fight was one worth battling out. In short, I've been completely seduced by "Becoming Naomi Leon". It is perhaps the underrated children's novel of 2004. Hands down.

Naomi begins her book with the chilling statement that she can now point out the exact moment that her sense of peace and security began to unravel like those cartoons where a dog wearing a sweater gets a string from his shirt caught in some way. "Pretty soon the poor dog is bare to its skin, shivering, and all that had kept it warm is nothing more than a bedraggled string". And it all began the night her mother came to town. Naomi had been living a nice quiet life with her great-grandmother (or just Gram, as she calls her) and her little brother Owen. Owen has a slight birth defect that affects his neck and voice, but otherwise he's pretty much a certified genius. Both kids were abandoned years ago by their wayward mama Terri Lynn (self-renamed as Skyla), who has just as randomly swung into town to see them. More exactly, to see Naomi. With the firm belief that she is the rightful mother of her child (Owen's physical condition jars with her), Skyla has every intention of grabbing her daughter and dragging her to Las Vegas to take care of her boyfriend's young daughter. Naomi's fright is understandable, but fortunately her Gram is a force to be reckoned with. And before our heroine knows it, she's whisked away to Mexico to briefly escape her lunatic mother and to find her missing father, wherever he may be.

Yeah, I know. It sounds a little heavy-handed. A mite bit unbelievable. A smidgen over-the-top. And with any other author, it would've been. Other reviewers of this book have complained, ludicrously, that Skyla is portrayed as almost too evil and that no such mother like this exists. Sure they do. They exist all the time. They just don't get very good press. And Skyla is beautifully tempered as a character. Some moments she's swimming in charm, buying her babies every pretty present she can think of. Other times she's slapping Naomi upside the face and making thinly disguised threats against Gram. What Ryan does to even out the more unwieldy plot elements, like these, is introduce Naomi's penchant for carving. The daughter of a carver, Naomi carves soft soaps when she can, creating doves, lions, and squirrels. This all comes to a head when she and her family travel to the fabulous (and very real) Oaxacan Night of the Radishes, where expert carvers converge to create large beautiful radishes into varying animal, biblical, and mythical scenes. Adding this detail of Naomi's personality to her otherwise soft-spoken self makes her a very real and understandable heroine.

To my mind, "Becoming Naomi Leon" whops "Esperanza Rising"'s butt. It's a book that will have you alternately gripping your seat, reading with deep intensity, and laughing at its good humor. Gran alone is worth the price of admission. For a surprisingly thoughtful, intelligent, and incredibly readable book (reading this aloud to kids would work incredibly well, methinks) choose "Naomi Leon" any day of the week. A book that promotes tolerance and wisdom.

This book is about a girl named Naomi Outlaw who's parents are divorced and she lives with her grandmother in a trailer park. They named their trailer baby beluga. After seven years Naomi and her brother Owen's mother comes back. She changes her name has a boyfriend and goes to rehab centers. Naomi's mother wants to run off to Las Vegas with her boyfriend stepdaughter and Naomi. Naomi doesn't want to go she wants to stay with her brother who has medical disability. They go to Mexico to find their father and meet family members they've never before. Naomi gets to become a Leon animal carver.

Have you ever had to run away from your own mother, or had a great-grandma thaat was still alive? Well Naomi Leon has, and has a lot to deal with too, like having "the funniest last name in the universe" for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram (her great-grandma)), her difficulty speaking up, and her status at school as "nobody special."

But according to Gram, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. Luckily,with Gram and her little brother, Owen, life at Avocado Acres Trailer Ranco is happy and peaceful. That is, until Naomi and Owen's mother reappears after seven years, stirring up all sorts of questions--and a whole lot of trouble. Soon Naomi finds herself on a whirlwind journey in a last-ditch effort to keep her family together. But will positive thinking be enough to save them?

Do you like books that are full of suspense and wonder (a book you just can't put down)? Or a book with a series of events? Well if you do, then Becoming Naomi Leon is a great book for you.

In Becoming Naomi León, Pam Muñoz Ryan treats readers to another beautifully written novel. Naomi León Soledad Outlaw is a shy and extremely quiet young girl, living in the suburbs of San Diego, California with her great-grandmother and her younger brother, Owen. When Naomi and Owen's mother comes back into the picture, she brings excitement, chaos and uncertainty. What follows is a suspenseful, sad and humorous journey as Naomi has to discover who she is and where she has comes from.

Having read Ryan's Esperanza Rising, I was expecting a similar novel, but was pleasantly surprised by the change in tone, pace and characters. Owen is my favorite character, optimistic to the end with his FLK (Funny Looking Kid) label and his protective tape habits. Naomi is a character readers can truly empathize with and rejoice in her simple joys. And more than one of us could relate to her obsessive list making. The situations in this book are all too familiar in real life, but Ryan gives readers hope with a "fairy tale" ending, so to speak. A good novel to start discussion, Becoming Naomi León is well worth it and has become one of my favorite children's novels.

becoming noami leon was a fun book to read. the book was about a girl that her name was noami and her brother owen. they where Abandoned by her parents at age four and raised by her great-grandmother, Naomi is a mixture of Oklahoman and Mexican, but is not able to understand even a word in Spanish,although her new best friend, Blanca, informs her that "Leon" means "lion" and "Soledad is some big saint in Mexico.Then Naomi's mother, Skyla, returns,at first, Skyla claims to want a relationship with Naomi and her brother, but noami and owen do not know if they can trust her agan when she left them so little. Naomi dreams that Skyla has found herself and truly wants to wear mother/daughter outfits and build a family, but the only problem is that she is only showing noami that she could bilt a family with her and not including owen. I think she is not including him because he has a disability and thinks he is a little crazy. but even if he is a liittle crazy or has disabilitis he is still her son and has to love him as much he love noami. In the end noami went to mexico with her mother and lerned alot of thing, she lerned to not being shy no more and that for the first time she nows how mexico looks like. this book is showing people that if u want something to work out to try your best and it is showing that if u are shy u are not going to win nothing but what u already had. this book was a good book to read becauseit showed u alot of things that12-year-old girl that had no clue what she was doing with her life, but in the end she found out a place where she belonged.

The book Becoming Naomi Leon was really good. I especially like books that have to deal like with kids in problems,and this is what this book is about.
The main character is Naomi and she lives with her grandmother and little brother, she has never met her parents they left her since she was a little girl. Naomis mom comes to take her and her little brother away but what Naomi doent know is that the mother is a danger to her and brtother. So the grandmother and her neighbors and friends join together to protect Naoni and her brother. Then Naomi is all confused because she has never had the love of her parents and she wants to see how it feel to be loved. So in a way a part of her is saying go with your mom but another is saying dont iit is dangerous and your grandmother needs you. So she is all confused she ends up going on a journy to find her father. On that journey Naomi finds out who she and she learns who really loves her. So she finds out that she is a buetiful and intelegent girl, and even though she never had the love of her parents she allways had the love of her grandmother, brother ,and freinds.
Naomi always knew who she was but she was confused because she thought that she needed the love of her parents. Naomi is a very strong Character and she had a good head on her shoulders.

The book Becoming Naomi Leon was really good. I especially like books that have to deal like with kids in problems,and this is what this book is about.
The main character is Naomi and she lives with her grandmother and little brother, she has never met her parents they left her since she was a little girl. Naomis mom comes to take her and her little brother away but what Naomi doent know is that the mother is a danger to her and brtother. So the grandmother and her neighbors and friends join together to protect Naoni and her brother. Then Naomi is all confused because she has never had the love of her parents and she wants to see how it feel to be loved. So in a way a part of her is saying go with your mom but another is saying dont iit is dangerous and your grandmother needs you. So she is all confused she ends up going on a journy to find her father. On that journey Naomi finds out who she and she learns who really loves her. So she finds out that she is a buetiful and intelegent girl, and even though she never had the love of her parents she allways had the love of her grandmother, brother ,and freinds.
Naomi always knew who she was but she was confused because she thought that she needed the love of her parents. Naomi is a very strong Character and she had a good head on her shoulders.

4 stars! Becoming Naomi Leon was a wonderful book that deals with family and culture. I reccomend it for all ages. One thing I did not like about it was that the author should have made it longer, other than that it was wonderful.

"Get your things right now!" Naomi and her brother Owen where left in charge of their grandma when there mom left them and couldn't raise them no more. Now Naomi and Owen's mom came back 7 years later like nothing ever happend. Skyla Naomi's mom wants to take only Naomi to Las Vegas . Skyla won't take Owen because he is differnt from other kids. Naomi refused to go with Skyla her mom she would only go if her mom took Owen and her grandma. Naomi finds out her mom just wants her to get money from the state. Naomi and Owen and her grandma are going to Oaxaca City to find there dad before it's to late and Skyla finds them. Will she? I think Pam Munoz Ryan wrote this book in order to encourage people to never lose faith even if you're going thourgh hard times. I would recommend this book to someone who likes to read books full of hope and to a girl/boy that is going thourgh hard times so that she/he could see that there is always hope. This book is full of hope and the courage of one girl to stand up for her rights and barely getting to live life. Will Naomi find a soultion to get out of this mess. Seven years later she has asked many questions will they all be answerd. Read this book to find out next.