My Pal, Victor/Mi amigo, Victor (Bilingual) [Hardcover]

Diane Gonzales Bertrand (Author), Robert Sweetland (Illustrator), Eida de la Vega (Translator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Two boys enjoy the summer doing all of the things that boys do despite one boy's disability. Full story in English and again in Spanish.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2–Pedestrian prose and amateurish illustrations mar this treatment of friendship despite disabilities. Dominic's friend, Victor, may not walk, but he's far from disabled. He is not only a source of support, but a limit-pushing, life-expanding influence. Always ready with an imaginative story, a sidesplitting joke, or one more terrifying ride at the amusement park, Victor cheers Dominic on at softball games and admires his swimming ability. The closing twist reads: "But, the most important thing about my pal, Victor, is that he likes me just the way I am." This is paired with a picture showing one boy in a wheelchair. Libraries will be better served by Fred Rogers's Extraordinary Friends (Putnam, 2000) orLaura Dwight's We Can Do It! (Star Bright, 1998).
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From the Publisher

My Pal, Victor / Mi amigo, Victor is the winner of the ALA's (American Library Association) 2004 Schneider Family Award. The award honors an author and illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

My Pal, Victor / Mi amigo,Victor was also selected for inclusion on the 2004 New York Suggested Reading List

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Raven Tree Press,Csi; Bilingual edition (June 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972019294
• ISBN-13: 978-0972019293
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Children's Health > Special Needs Children

More About the Author

Diane Gonzales Bertrand has written stories and poems since childhood, but never saw books that connected to her own Mexican-American heritage. Fifteen years ago she found Arte Publico Press, a Houston publisher who welcomed her familia-friendly adult novels like Sweet Fifteen, Lessons of the Game, and Close to the Heart. Then Diane wrote the children's novel Alicia's Treasure and two award-winning novels for middle school students Trino's Choice, and Trino's Time.
Diane's published picture books Sip, Slurp, Soup, Soup/ Caldo, Caldo, Caldo, Family, Familia, The Last Doll, Uncle Chente's Picnic, and The Empanadas that Abuela Made have all earned "Best Bilingual Book" Latino Literary Awards. Her collection of bilingual short stories, Upside Down and Backwards, earned Honorable Mention in the Paterson Prize for Young Adults. Other titles include Ricardo's Race/La carerra de Ricardo, We are Cousins/Somos Primos, a bilingual novel, The Ruiz Street Kids, winner of a 2009 Skipping Stones Award and a brand new book, The Party for Papa Luis, recently listed as a finalist for the 2010 Tejas Star Book Award. A new novel for teens, The F Factor, is now published. Upcoming titles are Adelita and the Veggie Cousins and Sofia and the Purple Dress.
Her picture books with Raven Tree Press include the award winning, My Pal Victor/mi amigo Victor, and her forthcoming book, The Park Our Town Built.
Diane is Writer-in-Residence at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. She also loves to visit schools as an author and talk about her books, her family, and the importance of writing down our stories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good bi-lingual book with a strong moral lesson, June 23, 2004

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Pal, Victor/Mi amigo, Victor (Bilingual) (Hardcover)

"My Pal Victor" is a great children's book that also teaches some beginning Latin American Spanish vocablulary and accepting others for who they are. Each page of the book has the text printed in both English and Spanish so it is easy to associate the English and Spanish words. The illustrations are colorful and will easily hold the interest of a young reader. The story line shows the strong friendship between Victor and Dominic.

I had a couple of other people take a look at the book and found that most people miss part of the surprise at the end of the book. Victor has a disability which would cause most people to end the book with a comment that they like Victor just the way he is, but the author turns this philosophy on its head when Dominic says that the most important thing about Victor is that he accepts Dominic just the way he is. What a wonderful conclusion and a great way to teach perspective. "My Pal Victor" is a recommended read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bilingual/Disabilities, April 3, 2006

By 

Renee I. Ullmann "Renee Ullmann" (University Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Pal, Victor/Mi amigo, Victor (Bilingual) (Hardcover)

Synopsis: Dominic tells about all the things he does with his pal Victor and he portrays Victor to be a great friend. The two boys, Dominic and Victor do lots of fun things together. They look up at the clouds and Victor makes up stories about them. Victor says that they look like dragons, rocket ships and the pyramids in Mexico. He says, "My Pal Victor, tells great jokes." For example one of Victor's jokes was "If you mix a parrot and a pickle together what do you get?" Answer: "A pickle who wants a cracker." Victor goes to Dominic's baseball games to cheer for him. The boys go swimming. Victor tells scary ghost stories. Dominic tells how they love to ride rollercoasters together. Most importantly, Victor likes Dominic just the way Dominic is.

Evaluation: This story is realistic contemporary fiction. It is written in both Spanish and English. On every page English is on the top and Spanish is underneath it. Dominic and Victor are both Hispanic. Victor is handicapped. He's in a wheelchair. However, the reader does not see his wheelchair in the illustrations until the last page, and nothing about him being handicapped or different is in the text. Bertrand portrays Victor as a child who can do everything any child can do. He can even swim! The jokes in the story are slightly lame, but to children they may be funny. The answers to the jokes can be found on the last page along with vocabulary translated from English to Spanish. The theme is different from many other books with handicapped children in them being the fact that most books are from the perspective that the handicapped child is happy to be accepted whereas in this book the non-handicapped person is happy to be accepted just the way he is by a handicapped person. My Pal, VICTOR won the Schneider Family Book Award in 2005.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Pal, Victor/Mi amigo, Victor, September 15, 2004

By 

Carla Joinson - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Pal, Victor/Mi amigo, Victor (Bilingual) (Hardcover)

This is a simple story that any child can relate to. The author takes two boys through many fun experiences, emphasizing that the two are having fun and enjoying one another. By the end of the story, Victor's obvious difference doesn't seem to matter at all. The affirmation at the end doesn't smack of a "moral" that would otherwise make it too sweet.