The Color of My Words
by Lynn Joseph
From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. The author of A Wave in Her Pocket (1991)
and other picture books set in Trinidad moves to the Dominican Republic for her
first novel. Ana Rosa may not have her eye fixed on the future the way her
beloved big brother, Guario, does, but as she's already filling every available
scrap of paper with poems and stories, her vocation is clear. In simple but
eloquent verse and prose, she introduces her family and her small, tightly knit
community as she recounts pivotal events in her twelfth year, from a first crush
to learning that her rum-and-merengue -loving Papi isn't her real father.
Then news comes that the whole neighborhood is going to be razed to make way for
a tourist hotel. Led by Guario, all band together to protest, but on Ana Rosa's
thirteenth birthday the bulldozers arrive, with soldiers to defend them, and she
sees Guario shot down. Unlike Frances Temple's Taste of Salt (1992), set
in neighboring Haiti, this is less an indictment of a violent, corrupt,
repressive regime than a coming-of-age story, propelled as much by the joy of
finding the right words and capturing them on paper as by past or present
tragedy. In the end, the words that had deserted Ana Rosa at her brother's death
begin to sing inside her again, and with a new sense of purpose she resolves to
use them to tell her brother's story. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Specific Topics
**Dominican Republic**
Ana Rosa Hernandez lives in the Republica Dominicana with her family and close friends. Here, in America, we call that place the Dominican Republic. Found out more about Ana Rosa's Homeland at the following links.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/dr.html Dominican Republic Info
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/caribbean/dominican_republic/ Dominican Republic general info
http://home-3.tiscali.nl/~pjetax/country/country_index.html History, geographics, and pictures of the Dominican Republic
http://hometown.aol.com/pgerace/myhomepage/travel.html Pictures of the Dominican Republic
**Spanish Language**
Throughout the book, the reader comes across words from the Spanish language. While some are translated immediately after the word, many are not. Luckily, there are websites that can help you translate words from Spanish to English or vice versa! Use these links and start translating!
http://www.freetranslation.com/
Text translator- Spanish to English
http://babel.altavista.com/tr Another text translator
**Music and Dancing**
On page 45, Ana Rosa tells the reader about the importance of music in her culture. "In the Republica Dominica, music grows in our blood right from the cradle, and dancing bleeds it out in bold colors, reds, and purples, swirling everywhere. We wake up to the merengue and go to sleep to sweet salsa. In between we sway and sigh to the melancholy sounds of countryside bachata." These links will help you to appreciate the culture and its music and dances.
http://www.superregional.com/ Super Regional 103.9 FM—Live Santiago Radio station!
http://home-3.tiscali.nl/~pjetax/merengue/merengue_index.html Listen to tunes!
http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/merengue.htm Information about the Merengue dance
http://www.mindspring.com/~adiascar/musica/merhst-e.htm Merengue history
**Gri Gri Tree**
On pages 24-25, we can read Ana Rosa's poem entitled The Gri Gri Tree. "I like to sit high in my gri gri tree, where I can survey all below me. On top of the gri gri I'm a strong, dark queen sitting on a throne of towering green. I hold the leaves close as the wind blows past. I kiss the rain drops as the thunder blasts. I'm the gri gri queen and I'm in command protecting my tree from careless hands. Alone with a treasure no one else sees. Hidden from the world and all who seek me." This gri gri tree is the sacred place where Ana Rosa writes her thoughts, and, ultimately, where she witnesses something that will change her life forever. Look at this link to learn more about the Gri Gri tree.
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/Chudnoff/TropAmerican/pdf%20files/bucida1new.pdf Info about the Gri Gri Tree
**Humpback Whales**
While sitting in her special gri gri tree one day, Ana Rosa said she saw something that she had never seen before and she was so scared that I almost fell out of the tree. "There I was looking at the sea when suddenly out of it rose a giant monster, tall and black and covering the sun with its shadow. Before I could scream, the monster fell back into the sea." (p. 28) Later, Rosa Ana discovers that the giant "sea monster" was actually a humpback whale that had gotten sidetracked while on its way to the annual winter mating season. (p. 42) Learn more about these fascinating creatures at the following links.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/humpback/curious.html Humpback whale
http://aqwa.com.au/humpback.html
More humpback info
http://www.coastalstudies.org/research/wimap.htm
Map of Humpback mating regions
**Sosua Beach**
To
get a better mental image of what Ana Rosa's homeland looks like, click on these
pictures of Sosua Beach.
http://www.hispaniola.com/DR/Guides/Sosua/ Sosua Beach info
**Nochebuena**
Nochebuena, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is the night of Roco's big Christmas fiesta. This is a wonderful celebration which includes eating, "the singing starts at midnight, and dancing goes on until Christmas Day comes bright and cheery over the green hills." (p. 65) This link gives you a little more info about this fun custom.
http://www.christmas.com/pe/1412 Night Before Christmas
**Guarocuya**
Ana Rosa's brother, Guario is a hero in this book. On page 102, we find out how he got his name. "Deep down I believed that Guario felt he had to live up to the great Taino chief he was named after--Guarocuya. From the time I was little, Mami used to tell us the story of Guarocuya, who had defied the Spanish conquistadors and conquered them in battle after battle, disguising himself as a rock, a tree, or a river until eventually the King and Queen of Spain wanted to give him a ttitle. But Guarocuya said No, he did not want a title, just freedom." Learn more about this famous Taino chief at the following link.
http://www.discoverhaiti.com/history00_4_1.htm Guarocuya info