Picture Book #21--My Very Own Room

Title:  My Very Own Room/ Mi Propio Cuartito

Author:  Amada Irma Perez

Illustrator:  Maya Christina Gonzalez

Grade Level Equivalent:  N/A

Lexile Measure:  700L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Biography/Literature for a Diverse Society

Theme:  It's great to have a big family, but you still need some privacy.

Primary and Secondary Characters:  The girl (who is never named), her five brothers, and their parents

Awards:  Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature (Nominated, 2000)

Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) (Won, 2001)

Date of Publication:  2000

Publisher:  Lee & Low

ISBN:  0892391642

My Very Own Room is based on the life of the author, Amada Irma Perez.  It tells the story of a little girl who is nine years old and fed up with having to share a room with her five younger brothers.  There is no room and definitely no peace and quiet.  The house gets even more crowded when her parents have friends or relatives stay over while they come to America to look for jobs and make a better life for themselves.  But there is one room in the small two bedroom house they all share that would be perfect to make a space just for the little girl.  With help from her family, the girl gets her very own room in the storage area of the house.  It may be small, but it's perfect for her.

This book would be a great addition to a classroom because it not only tells the story of dealing with a lot of younger siblings, but it is also a great lesson in culture changes.  The family is from Mexico and lives in a small two bedroom house with eight people while the girl's father works the night shift at a factory job trying to provide for his large family.  She says that sometimes friends and relatives come over to stay while they search for jobs and homes in the new country they have arrived in.  This is something that many students will have never dealt with and probably will never have to deal with in their own lives.  It is a good lesson about how this family of Mexicans live while struggling to get by, something that a lot of Hispanic families go through.  There are so many students who have their own rooms even though they have large families.  Or maybe they share a room with just one brother or sister.  But there are certainly not a lot of students who have had to share a room with five other people.  This story is also written in Spanish.  The two languages appear throughout the story.  This book would be great to start a discussion with the students on how they would feel having to share such a small house with seven other people in it.