Kenadee Marry

Mid-Term Book Analysis

September 29, 2022

Carmela Full of Wishes Analysis

Carmela Full of Wishes is a book about young Carmela on her birthday. On a trip into
town Carmela finds a dandelion and is instructed to make a wish, however she thinks about the
wish for so long she falls, and the seeds float away before she is able to make a wish. Her
brother can tell she is sad and takes her to a cliff of dandelions where she can make a wish on
her birthday. I picked this book based solely on the cover of the book, it has a pretty blue
background with seagulls and dandelion seeds flying in the air. The young girl on the cover
looked happy, and drew me in.
The equity issue I discovered in this book is the fact that Carmela has to wish for nice
things for her mom and wish that her dad could come home because he did not leave willingly.
These are issues of immigrants and those who are undocumented, not for anyone who was
born here. This fact that it does not happen to everyone is what makes this an equity issue.
While the issue is subtle, and only given a page each, it is the issue that is present in the book
that I picked out.
The author of this book, Matt De La Pena, is not an outsider looking in writing this. Matt
grew up as a Mexican American and wrote a book called “Mexican White Boy” before this book.
Carmela Full of Wishes is one of many books Matt has written after getting a Master of Creative
writing. While this book is not based on his own life, that I could find, it could be based on his
own experiences of growing up around these things and within this culture.
The main character of this book is Latino, and is from a family of Latinos, but we only
see her mother and her brother. The book mentions how the father is away because of a
problem with his papers but does not go farther into depth on this topic. The book also
discusses how her mother most likely is a maid, because she makes beds for others. The
brother in the book runs errands and Carmela is happy to tag along with him.
This book has only Latino characters in it, and Carmela and her brother are running
errands in a Latino neighborhood. You can tell this from the illustrations done by Christian
Robinson. While there are no stereotypes of people in the illustrations when it comes to their
clothes, there is some that can be identified in the jobs they hold. The characters surrounding
the pair on their walk are street vendors, farmers and her mother as a maid, this lack of
influential characters in the book lead to a stereotype that all Latinos work jobs such as these.
The people of the neighborhood are of different ages, there is an older woman selling
corn, there is a mother who is pregnant walking with a dog and a child but there is no
differentiation in race of the characters. Race is not a central theme of the book, it is just subtly
there that the characters are Latino as opposed to being the books focus. The fact that race is in
the background of the story also means that if the characters were not Latino the story would
not change a significant amount. I think overall this book does a good job of showing different
types of Latinos but lacks the positive reinforcement of influential Latino characters.
While the setting is not restricted to one area, the sibling pair walks past a greenhouse,
market and stores to get to the laundromat the setting is still limited to a Latino neighborhood.
The neighborhood itself has graffiti on some walls and has the appearance of looking run down
leading to a restricted view of where someone who is Latino would live. This perpetuates the
stereotype that Latinos live in bad neighborhoods, and students who read this book would see
this as being true because of this book. The book also perpetuates the stereotype that Latinos
only work certain jobs, such as farmers or street vendors.
This book hints to the inequalities of those who do not have papers living in the United
States but does nothing to advocate for a change in this aspect. Due to the fact that this book is
targeting the age group of preschool – third grade I think it uses more subtle tactics to hint at
inequality so the students are not overwhelmed by the enormity of the inequality. Talking
about it on one page, instead of making the entire book about how her dad is gone, brings the
topic up without over focusing on it and changing the age group that is the targeted audience.
However, even when an age group so young is the target of a book I think it should still
show positive role models in order to boost the child’s self-esteem. The Latino characters in this
book are not portrayed as leaders or anyone who is doing something to make a change. Due to
this the inequality is brought up, but nothing is done to change that inequality. In addition, the
value of the jobs the characters do have are not discussed. Latino culture is not discussed or
portrayed in this book either, and there is no content that would promote self-esteem growth
or a sense of self-worth for Latinos who read this book.
While no Latino culture is discussed, you do see some Spanish words throughout the
book. Carmela talks about the bodega down the street, but no indication of what bodega
means is given. This means that students who do not speak Spanish will not know what it
means and may not take the time to learn. This is the only Spanish term used in the text
directly, however the pictures depict more. Signs utilize the Spanish language in the
illustrations, and those are easier to depict due to the picture being a tool to utilize.
This book has many shortcomings in the area of changing the inequality, but due to the
targeted age group this book would be okay to utilize in a classroom setting. It is a happy story
about a girl running errands with her brother who gets to eventually make her wish. The
inequality is brought up but not talked about so much that a student of that age would become
overwhelmed. Students are introduced to the inequality, and it is a good seed to plant if
immigration inequality is something that you want to address in your classroom.
The text of the book contains punctuation, dialogue, and quotation marks to show
dialogue, making it developmentally appropriate for students of this age group to take note of.
Preschool students should be introduced to this idea, and by the time they are in third grade
they should be starting to use these elements in their writing, making this text a good way to
model the proper use of punctuation.
Students within this age group can easily understand the book and story, but due to the
brief mention of inequalities being faced the teacher will have to point it out and talk about it in
order to ensure the students understand the material. It would be a good book to read within
the age range provided in order to start bringing up inequalities without giving so many details
to the inequality that students at this age would not be able to understand.
Personally, I would not use this book with children to teach a lesson. I would not mind
having it in my classroom for a student to have access too but I do not think it brings up enough
material or information about inequality for it to be useful in teaching a lesson. You could use it
as a read aloud when introducing the topic of inequality but you would need more content in
order for the lesson to be influential and make a difference in the students thinking. In addition
this book does not provide positive images of Latinos that would inflate my Latinos students
feelings of self-worth.