Laughing Out Loud, I Fly : A Carcajadas Yo Vuelo [Hardcover]

Juan Felipe Herrera (Author), Karen Barbour (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 1998

From one of the most prominent Chicano poets writing today, here are poems like sweet music-to make the body shake and move to the rhythm of rhyme, to the pulse of words. Juan Felipe Herrera writes in both Spanish and English about the joy and laughter and sometimes the confusion of growing up in an upside-down, jumbled-up world-between two cultures, two homes. With a crazy maraca beat, Herrera creates poetry as rich and vibrant as mole de ole and pineapple tamales...an aroma of papaya...a clear soup with strong garlic, so you will grow not disappear Herrera's words are hot& peppery, good for you. They show us what it means to laugh out loud until it feel like flying.

Juan Felipe Herrera's vibrant poems dance across these pages in a dazzling explosion of two languages English and Spanish. Skillfully crafted, beautiful, joyful, fun, the poems are paired with whimsical black and white drawings by Karen Barbour. The resulting collage fills the soul and the senseshot and peppery, good for you and celebrates a life lived between two cultures.Laughing out loud, I fly, toward the good things,to catch Mama Lucha on the sidewalk, afterschool, waiting for the green-striped bus,on the side of the neighborhood store, next to almonds,Jose's tiny wooden mule, the wiseboy from San Diego,teeth split apart, like mine in the coppery afternoon . . .

22000 Pura Belpre Award 

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 UpAJuan Felipe Herrera has written a series of poems in both English and Spanish celebrating his childhood. The poet sizes up life, observes what's around him, revels in its tastes and smellsA"I am a monkey cartoon or a chile tamal, crazy/with paisley patches, infinite flavors cinnamon &/banana ice cream, it's 3 in the afternoon...." Barbour's black-and-white drawings accompany each poem, delicately underlining its images but allowing the strong sensuality of the words to seep into readers' minds. To read the collection is to come to know the narrator who carries "the sun in my pocket, playing the gold violin/a seven-stringed branch of water & bronze...." Laughing Out Loud, I Fly joins a growing number of English/Spanish poetry collections for young people, such as Lori Carlson's Cool Salsa (Holt, 1994) and Naomi Shihab Nye's The Tree Is Older Than You Are (S & S, 1995). It offers selections from a poet's heart to savor again and again.AKathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Citing Picasso's Hunk of Skin as his inspiration, Herrera (Calling the Doves/El Canto de las Palomas, 1995) offers 22 poems in facing English and Spanish versions, printed over Barbour's pale, floating figures of images from Mexican folk art. Subordinating meaning to sound and rhythm, the poet writes in quick, breathless phrases that sometimes read like random lists``I own many socks, some with wings/others Alexandrines, 6 of white beaches/ . . . & 1 skin-diving pig, `Where are my sockos?' as Papi says,/one tambourine socko for your flower-vase head.'' Literalists may flounder, but the music comes through clearly, especially in the Spanish: `` `Dnde estn mis calcetas?' como dice Papi,/una calceta de pandereta para tu maceta.'' The voice is a child's, and while references to places in Mexico, California, and the Southwestas well as Chechnya and Sarajevoflicker past, it's food and family, spices, pets, and friends that recur. This is poetry to read aloud, to read quickly, to understand more with the heart than with the head. (Poetry. 12-14) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; 1st edition (April 4, 1998)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0060276045
• ISBN-13: 978-0060276041
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Juan Felipe Herrera was initiated into the Word by the fire-speakers of the early Chicano Movimiento and by heavy exposure to various poetry, jazz, and blues performance streams. He is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California - Riverside. His published works include Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream, Mayan Drifter: Chicano Poet in the Lowlands of the Americas, and Thunderweavers / Tejedoras de Rayos.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The fanciful joys of language, July 21, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Laughing Out Loud, I Fly : A Carcajadas Yo Vuelo (Hardcover)

On opposite pages, poet Herrera creates his magical poems, filled with joy and laughter, the craziness of a child's world, two cultures, two homes. Dancing with sounds and the rhythms of language, the poems are filled with vibrant images:

"Chico, the smallest, just like this, Chico
with circus swing arms, my papi calls me
Chiquin, Don Memin, the Mayor of Nueva York
in my long coast of marimbas and Puerto Rico..."
(Chico, the Smallest, Just Like This, Chico)

Combining cultures, this work invites participation, gleeful and enthusiastic as the food and people who come to life in these poems:

"In Mama's Mexican clay bowl, an onion is born
a cilantro skyscraper and a tiny sardine eye
or is it a mad reddish chicken or Socrates my cat
the only one
that scratches stoves..."
(In Mama's Mexican Clay Bowl, An Onion Is Born)

Complemented by the stylish artwork of Karen Barbour, these pages beg to be read aloud, the sounds, the scents, the language of food that evokes vibrant memories, a book that celebrates life, love and a sense of place. Luan Gaines/2006.