Module 2: Multicultural Poetry

 Something Like Home

Bibliography

Arango, Andrea Beatriz. (2023). Something like home. Yearling. ISBN: 9780593566213

 

Summary

Something Like Home is a novel in verse that is a Pura Belpré Honor book and a nominee for the 2025 Texas Bluebonnet Award.  The fictional novel tells the story of Laura Rodríguez Colón when she is thrust into a new school and living arrangement with her Aunt Silvia. The front cover has a young girl touching noses with a small dog which would be a huge draw for the upper elementary early middle school age range.  They are very interested in stories and books about and including animals.  The book does not have a table of contents, but each of the individual free verse poems throughout the book are titled.  The end of the book also includes a small excerpt from the author’s previous free verse novel which is a Newberry Honor winner.

 

Analysis

The poems throughout this free verse novel are a variety of lengths and have stanzas of a varying number of lines.  The poems do not rhyme or have any rhythm because the purpose of this collection of poems is to tell a story and evoke an emotional impact.  The protagonist is of Puerto Rican descent, and she shows this not only through her mixture of Spanish and English words used throughout the poems, but through her experiences with classmates and her aunt who she calls Titi. 

She also shares through her poetry her experiences living in a non-traditional family home situation.  Her relationship with a discarded dog, Sparrow, allows the reader to feel her emotions and disappointments because she only shares these feelings with Sparrow.  The author uses figurative language throughout the book.  For example, she describes puppies as “like babies but with fur.”  She also uses sensory imagery to help the reader feel more connected to the protagonist and visualize what is happening in the story.  For example, she writes “I am spent and shaking everything mixing up in my stomach and head and I just yell my aunt’s name all broken voice and burning eyes until she wakes up and opens the door.”

The free verse novel will appeal to upper elementary and middle school students because many of the topics and experiences Laura has throughout the book are very familiar and relatable.  Students will understand her fear of talking in front of the class and making new friends.  They will understand the frustration of having different expectations for different places where they live or spend time and having to figure out those differing expectations and adapting to them.

Excerpt

Letter #1

Dear Mom and Dad,

 

I’ve never written a letter before, so this

feels kind of weird.  But we’ve also never

been far away from each other and I’ve never

lived with someone else before, so I guess

the letter writing isn’t the weirdest thing

going on right now

              I asked Titi Silvia who asked Janet who

asked her boss, and they said I could write

to you.  I don’t really get why they won’t

let me call, but Titi says this will be

 good for my writing skills.  Like I’m just

magically going to catch up to everyone

because I’m sending a letter every few

days.  She clearly doesn’t know how hard

sixth grade is.

 

Activity

Throughout the novel Laura writes letters to her parents who are in rehab.  She continues to write letters to her parents even though they aren’t responding to her letters and at one point during the novel she doesn’t know where they are because they left rehab.  There is even one letter she writes that she doesn’t send.  The author writes this portion of the free verse novel in the format of a traditional letter.  An activity would be to have students learn the different parts of a letter and write one of their own.  Laura even mentions she is using a voice to text app to help her write her letters which would be a great modification for students who need it.  The letters could be to anyone or nobody and be in English or the student’s native language.