Super Cilantro Girl/La Superniña del Cilantro (English and Spanish Edition) [Hardcover]

Juan Felipe Herrera (Author), Honorio Robleda Tapia (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

What happens when a small girl suddenly starts turning green, as green as a cilantro leaf, and grows to be fifty feet tall? She becomes Super Cilantro Girl, and can overcome all obstacles, that’s what! Esmeralda Sinfronteras is the winning super-hero in this effervescent tale about a child who flies huge distances and scales tall walls in order to rescue her mom. Award-winning writer Juan Felipe Herrera taps into the wellsprings of his imagination to address and transform the concerns many first-generation children have about national borders and immigrant status. Honorio Robledo Tapia has created brilliant images and landscapes that will delight all children.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Esmeralda Sinfronteras, eight, worries when her mother does not return home when expected. Having crossed the border to Tijuana, she is being detained, Esmeralda's grandmother tells her, because she does not have a green card. The child carries a little bouquet of cilantro from her mother's garden into her room with her and wishes on the leaves, "shaped like hearts with wings," for her mother's return. The next morning, when Esmeralda goes to wash her hands, she notices that they are green. Washing makes them even greener-and that's just the beginning. Next her eyes, teeth, and hair turn green, and she grows to a great height-becoming Super Cilantro Girl, a sort of Jolly Green Giant who can fly to her mother's rescue. And rescue her she does, flying through the night to the border, making green plants grow over everything to foil the border patrol. The next morning, she wakes up to find that her mother is home and she is just Esmeralda Sinfronteras. Was it a dream? This intriguing fantasy raises questions and lets youngsters decide for themselves. Boxed text, yellow for English and green for the sound Spanish translation, is positioned so as not to interfere unduly with the brilliant acrylic illustrations executed in a primitive style. The story has considerable child appeal, and is a good discussion starter.
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Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Children's Book Press; Bilingual edition (June 19, 2003)
• Language: English, Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0892391871
• ISBN-13: 978-0892391875
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,363,774 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent bilingual Spanish/English text, May 18, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Super Cilantro Girl/La Superniña del Cilantro (English and Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

Super Cilantro Girl is an excellent bilingual Spanish/English text which brings a new heroine to life and spices the account with Honorio Robledo Tapia's drawings. A young girl seeks to keep her family together and uses a bunch of cilantro leaves and a wish to rescue her mother, who is being held at the Mexican border. A fine story of courage evolves.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Examines themes of cultural duality, immigrant status and national borders as they affect children, October 5, 2009

By 

American Immigration Council's Community Educ... (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Super Cilantro Girl/La Superniña del Cilantro (English and Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

When Esmeralda Sinfronteras learns her mother, an American citizen, has been stopped at the border for lack of a green card, she transforms into Super Cilantro Girl. Turning green like a bouquet of cilantro, salsa verde, and the earth in spring, Esmeralda the super hero is able to leap over border walls, scale control towers and turn everything cilantro green so the border will disappear, ("sin fronteras") and her mother can return home.

Written in both English and Spanish by nationally known Mexican-American poet, Juan Filipe Herrera, Super Cilantro Girl examines themes of cultural duality, immigrant status and national borders as they affect children. This entertaining, imaginative and brightly illustrated story can be used to initiate classroom explorations into these timely issues with young students.