Grab Hands and Run [Paperback]

Frances Temple (Author), Ed Little (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

An El Salvadorian family flees political oppression in their homeland and takes a perilous journey north, through Mexico to America, where they hope they will finda better life. A ‘compelling, provocative, and exciting novel.’—V. ‘Details of the brutal realities in El Salvador are dexterously woven into the story of one family’s struggle to beat the odds.’—Publishers Weekly. ‘Not to be missed.’—H.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Temple addresses the plight of Salvadoran refugees in this follow-up to Taste of Salt , her powerful portrayal of strife in contemporary Haiti. Twelve-year-old Felipe and his sister Romy, eight, have never grown accustomed to the intricacies of their life in El Salvador. Children must not play in certain areas or ever go out alone, as their city is in the grip of a civil war that is to blame for murders, disappearances and the drafting of boys into the army. They live with constant worry, compounded by their father Jacinto's secretive involvement in a resistance movement. When Jacinto turns up missing, Felipe, Romy and their mother, Paloma, follow the patriarch's oft-spoke instructions to "grab hands and run" all the way to freedom in Canada. The arduous and uncertain journey that follows forms the bulk of the novel. Temple's characters are wholly credible, expressing common human emotions while retaining a specific cultural identity. Details of the brutal realities in El Salvador are dexterously woven into the story of one family's struggle to beat the odds. Though Felipe's first-person narrative slows in places as the characters grow travel-weary, a sustained level of suspense spurs readers on. Temple's novel may well lead the curious to research the country and politics that inspired her fictional account. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The author of a fine first novel about recent events in Haiti (Taste of Salt, 1992) depicts an El Salvadoran family fleeing to Canada. Felipe, 12, overhears his activist father Jacinto tell his mother Paloma, ``If they come for me, you and the children grab hands and run.'' When Jacinto does disappear, Felipe finds a note: ``Leave and don't come back. If not, you die.'' The tragedies and cruelties of the journey north are not Felipe's first troubles--he has spent a night hiding to escape impressment into the army, and he once found a man's hand in a lot near his home (``The death squads often dismember,'' Jacinto explained); but now there are new horrors--guides who charge exorbitantly, then steal still more; a man who offers a ride only to turn them in. The violence is real but mostly offstage or implicit in threats they're lucky enough to escape; Paloma flirts to gain one man's help, then manages to evade him; later, she uses the safer tactic of disguising herself as an unattractive boy. The characters come vividly to life, in their courageous behavior and in Temple's telling language (to her hard-working grandfather, little sister Romy is ``as dear to him as his machete''); the grueling journey typifies the Latino refugee experience, though these three--as certifiable political fugitives--are lucky enough to find acceptance when they reach their goal. Well wrought, authentic, and compelling. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (May 5, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064405486
• ISBN-13: 978-0064405485
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #901,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book!, March 14, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Grab Hands and Run (Paperback)

This book is great! I think you can learn a lot from a book like
this because some people think coming here is easy but you find
out it's not.Grab Hands and Run is good because it gives lots of
details so it's easy to picture the story in your mind. I think the author
did a good job by writting this story because it teaches about the lessons in life and how families have to stick together no matter how hard or difficult the problem is.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting subject, June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Grab Hands and Run (Paperback)

Overall, I was not satisfied with Grab Hands and Run. When I picked it up, I was interested to be reading about the lives of immigrants from El Salvador, as I had never found much on that subject or any other South American country for that matter. However, I was disappointed. The writing, I thought, was too flat.Although I felt for the characters (and would find it hard for any priveledged American or person not to), there was no third dimention to them. They were always the "good guys," and there's nothing wrong with that except that no three people can constantly be good without having another side to them. I do not mean that Paloma had to have a dark, hateful spirit deep within her that wanted to drop her children's hands and save herself. I simply mean that the human character is more complex than Frances Temple portrays it. At the end, I did not feel any rapture or uplifting of spirit; rather, I felt that, despite the many trials the family went through, it was no great accomplishment. I would have liked to see another side to the characters developed, and a deeper probing of the immigrant and human's soul. Where does their determination come from? Do they ever feel regret that they left El Salvador. Don't they miss anything? With this subject matter, there has to be more explored

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This was very exciting., October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grab Hands and Run (Paperback)

This book entails and discuss hope and how a family sticks together during the hardest times in life. This book also has suspense, espically at the end when the author leaves you in imaging what happend after the book has ended.