11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Yout Father's Lolita, January 20, 2006
This review is from: Nacho And Lolita (Hardcover)
"Lolita" is a swallow, one of the many swallows that return every year to Mission San Juan Capistrano in Southern California from Argentina, 7,500 miles away! "Nacho" is a "pitacoche" (Pam Munoz Ryan's author's note explains that she based her myth-like bird on ancient Mayan and Incan histories, only to find after writing the story that a pitacoche is a real bird, the curved-bill thrasher!). Ryan's almost-mythic bird is "regal... colorful and noble." We learn, though, that his magnificently colored feathers and beautiful singing cover a "pitiful and lonely spirit," for the unique bird is too heavy for long distance flying, and he is the only pitacoche around.
Luckily, this potentially tragic figure is also a very big-hearted, old-fashioned romantic bird, and when he spies Lolita building her nest in the mission belfry, he plucks one of his colorful feathers and presents it to Lolita. She is smitten with him, and "when the swallow took it in her beak, by the mystery of the ages, it became a blue hibiscus." Nacho's affections increase, but one day Lolita reminds him that every winter the swallows leave the mission for warmer climates. Moreover, the land around the mission was becoming so dry that she and her new brood of baby swallows might not be able to return! After an imaginative but failed attempt to accompany Lolita over the ocean, the dejected Nacho takes matters into his own claws. He plucks his magical feathers and spreads them over the barren landscape, causing the river to overflow and flowers, palms, and "draperies of bougainvillea" to bloom! He turns mostly grey as a result, but his love for the safely returned Lolita makes for a happy conclusion "against a papaya sky" (the result of his last feather tossed into the air).
Ryan's lush, florid style speaks of love amid the almost-ruins, and there's am almost operatic range of emotion in the narrative and dialogue. Separated from Lolita after the failed flying attempt, he calls out "We will meet in our dreams," and "when she disappeared from sight, his heart felt as barren as the land." Lolita reassures the no longer colorful Nacho, "To me, you will always be splendid." Some elementary school-age children may not appreciate these matters of the heart, but this is a sweet book, with adventure, drama, and the always fascinating true story of the mission swallows as a backdrop. Ryan uses several Spanish words in the text (with translations following) for further authenticity. Claudia Rueda's vivid, friendly illustrations have so much texture, saturation, contrast, and luminosity (see, especially, the light bouncing off the ocean waves, and the poppies bursting forth under Nacho's feathers) that it's incredible that they she drew them with colored pencils only. The dense narrative can be read over several nights and days, and the combination of tender and dramatic elements make this a winner for classroom reading (with related projects) as well as storytime at home.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nacho and Lolita, September 24, 2008
This review is from: Nacho And Lolita (Hardcover)
I seem to have bought this book more for myself than for my child - I LOVED it!
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