Armando and the Blue Tarp School
Hernan Sosa's sensitive and detailed watercolor and ink illustrations reveal much about life in the colonia, a neighborhood bordering a towering trash heap, as he brings to life Armando's thin mattress on cinder blocks, his few treasures on a makeshift shelf, and the candle by his bedside for light. . . . With a liberal sprinkling of Spanish words and phrases, authors Fine and Josephson tackle some powerful themes of social justice and equal opportunity, but the story is not heavy-handed or preachy. Armando's story is likely to prompt children of all ages to think hard about the gifts and privileges in their own lives. . . . This book about a blue tarp school teaches a valuable lesson about hope, possibilities and the power of one person to make a difference in a community. --PaperTigers.orgThe authors do an excellent job communicating the difficult living conditions of the most vulnerable of the poor-children who work rather than go to school and live in shacks alongside the dump. . . . This book makes a tremendous addition to any collection of children's literature that focuses on high quality content.  With its developing country setting and the story of the real Señor David Lynch at the back, the book is as realistic as it is inspiring. --The Rutgers University Project on Economics and ChildrenThis affecting tale--of a plein-air schoolroom in a deeply impoverished neighborhood populated by pepenadores (trash pickers)--springs from the real deal. Fine and Josephson have taken the story of David Lynch, who first went to Mexico in 1980 to teach children living in the Tijuana city dump, and fashioned it into a picture book. Fictional, yes, but only marginally so. Their story pivots around Armando, who scours the dump with his father all day long for anything of worth, and his thirst to join the classroom: a blue tarp on the bare ground. Though Armando's income is vital to the family, his parents come to understand that only an education will allow him to eclipse pepenadore life. The simplicity of the story is what lets it run deep, its bite of realism; no sermons are being delivered here, just a door thrown open to life under reduced circumstances (though Sosa's artwork, with its look of leaded glass, conveys a benevolent quality to the proceedings). Without patronizing, Señor David defines the essence of humanitarianism, while the pepenadores, ever searching for beauty in the beast, find gold--and prize it. --KIRKUS REVIEWSArmando and his family live in a colonia near the Tiajuana city dump. Like most of their neighbors, they eke out a meager living by hunting through the mounds of foul-smelling garbage for anything they can use or sell. Then Señor David arrives, spreads a blue tarp on the ground, and sets up a school. At first the boy's parents are reluctant to let him attend because they need him to work for the family, but eventually they realize that this school could lead to a better life for their son. An extensive author's note explains that Señor David is based on David Lynch, a former special-education teacher who has devoted 27 years to teaching children like Armando in a similar colonia. The well-written text will be an eye-opener for children who take school for granted. --SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNALThis poignant picture book narrated by a young boy is based on a true story of a New York City teacher who set up a school on a blue tarp spread on the ground near a garbage dump in Tijuana, Mexico. Armando works all day with his father in the foul-smelling dump, picking through trash, "some to sell, some to use." He begs his parents to let him go to the blue tarp school, and at last, his parents allow him to attend in the afternoons. Clear, unframed, double-page pictures in watercolor and ink with thick white outlines show the children on the tarp in the midst of the noisy colonia (neighborhood) and also the bond between the boy and his teacher. When a huge fire burns the neighborhood, Armando's picture of the fiery night is printed alongside the story in the newspaper, and people send money to build a real schoolhouse. A lengthy final note fills in the facts and includes photos of the teacher and the pupils at the school now. Without melodrama, Armando's story shows what poverty means and the hope that things can change. --BOOKLIST