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tophat8855's review against another edition
4.0
Loved it!The biography of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. My daughter loved it, too.
wordyanchorite's review against another edition
3.0
This well-intentioned book has the kinds of problems you get when a white male writes a book about a Latina.
Socio-culturally, this book has problems. Aspects of Latino cultures get name-checked, but either they are not explored, or they are explained by comparison to the dominant culture. This has the effect of shutting out the kids who come from the same background as Sotomayor; they are apparently not the intended audience. This book about a Latina from the South Bronx is not really directed at kids who are either Latino or from the South Bronx. (The Spanish translation is pretty weak sauce, too.)
On documenting Sotomayor's start as a judge, the author states with great sincerity that success comes to those who make the most of the opportunities presented to them. This comes shortly after documenting the vast differences in the opportunities available to Sotomayor and her Princeton classmates. I just can't with this, so moving on.
This book's most egregious failures have to do with gender. Justice Sotomayor is a no-nonsense judge. The book makes a point of mentioning this for, like, two sentences. But the rest of the story and illustrations show us a passive, girly Sonia who wears pretty dresses while reading books in the grocery store. One of her major accomplishments, being "the judge who saved baseball", is banished to the author's note; maybe baseball is too masculine? Much is made of her relationship with her mother and of her emotions. The illustration of Obama telling her that she's his nominee has the president standing with his arm around her waist. The controlling imagery, right there in the subtitle and the cover illustration, is of Sotomayor as a delicate exotic flower. That is not the imagery I would have chosen, for sure.
Look, this book tries really hard. It talks about how hard it can be to be poor and brown in America. It just talks about it in a way that seems to minimize Sotomayor's accomplishments and shut out readers like her.
Socio-culturally, this book has problems. Aspects of Latino cultures get name-checked, but either they are not explored, or they are explained by comparison to the dominant culture. This has the effect of shutting out the kids who come from the same background as Sotomayor; they are apparently not the intended audience. This book about a Latina from the South Bronx is not really directed at kids who are either Latino or from the South Bronx. (The Spanish translation is pretty weak sauce, too.)
On documenting Sotomayor's start as a judge, the author states with great sincerity that success comes to those who make the most of the opportunities presented to them. This comes shortly after documenting the vast differences in the opportunities available to Sotomayor and her Princeton classmates. I just can't with this, so moving on.
This book's most egregious failures have to do with gender. Justice Sotomayor is a no-nonsense judge. The book makes a point of mentioning this for, like, two sentences. But the rest of the story and illustrations show us a passive, girly Sonia who wears pretty dresses while reading books in the grocery store. One of her major accomplishments, being "the judge who saved baseball", is banished to the author's note; maybe baseball is too masculine? Much is made of her relationship with her mother and of her emotions. The illustration of Obama telling her that she's his nominee has the president standing with his arm around her waist. The controlling imagery, right there in the subtitle and the cover illustration, is of Sotomayor as a delicate exotic flower. That is not the imagery I would have chosen, for sure.
Look, this book tries really hard. It talks about how hard it can be to be poor and brown in America. It just talks about it in a way that seems to minimize Sotomayor's accomplishments and shut out readers like her.
megatsunami's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. Great illustrations and I liked how it brought Judge Sotomayor's story alive with vivid details of her growing up. I thought it did a reasonably good job of addressing issues of race and class, though that part was beyond my preschooler's level so I'm not totally sure how kids will respond. The writing and the metaphors were a little strained in parts (like the flower growing in the city).
kwbat12's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this bio of the supreme court justice. Dual language, about hard work and effort, with a large emphasis on family support. Sweet, empowering, and a great book.
pwbalto's review against another edition
3.0
Bonus for being bilingual!
Brief Lives: A list of biographies for kids is on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/2012/03/biographies-for-children.html
Brief Lives: A list of biographies for kids is on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/2012/03/biographies-for-children.html
5elementknitr's review against another edition
5.0
I love, love, LOVED that this book has all the written text in English and Spanish on every page.
Judge Sotomayor's life story is so compelling. I need to find an adult version to learn even more about her.
Judge Sotomayor's life story is so compelling. I need to find an adult version to learn even more about her.
booksenvogue's review against another edition
5.0
For a children's literature homework assignment, I evaluated Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx by Jonah Winter. Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx/La juez que creció en el Bronx is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s life story rising from humble beginnings with a lovingly devoted mother to her confirmation as the first Latina woman on the Supreme Court. This book offers a representation of Latino/Latina culture in this non-fiction bilingual children's picture book biographical adaptation of a first-generation Puerto Rican immigrant. As with every book that crosses my path, I looked closer with a critical eye for authenticity. Per the Guidelines for Evaluating Diversity in Children's Books, below are my notes:
Accurate representation of cultural specifics: Puerto Rico is named explicitly as the unincorporated territory of the United States origence for the protagonist's parents where appropriate. The storyline ranges from the mid 1950's to the modern-day, yet the style of dress does not reflect any distinguishable silhouettes or fashion staples to accurately represent time period. Unfortunately, Sonia Sotomayor's childhood pictures available online show better era-appropriate dress than this book. Yet, each pictured setting includes details according to with the textual settings. The intergenerational values of family, respect, education, language, and pride, prevalent in the culture, were depicted except for religion.
Avoidance of stereotypes: While this story mainly chronicles a single character's life, the supporting characters were depicted as individuals. From the white male doctor's visit to the meeting with Black male and former President Barak Obama, the protagonist was shown with a few supporting characters of diverse skin tones and ethnicities. The variety of activities included family time, studying, and daily activities. From aspirations to be a detective to becoming a judge, the protagonist did not perform activities traditionally thought of as male or female activities. Instead, she behaved in ways that more accurately represent the contemporary diversity of roles.
Achievement: The protagonist was shown to be resourceful in overcoming her childhood diabetes medical limitations of being a detective to aspiring to be a judge. She later overcame her loneliness, isolation, and homesickness in college by immersing herself in her studies and leading a campus Latinx student social organization. She proved capable of solving her own problems. With the mother and later president's exception, not many authority figures were depicted or presented to support diversity in ethnicity and gender. Again with the centering on the protagonist and her single-parent household in the beginning, the presentation of power dynamics equally distributed among characters of various ethnicities and genders remained void.
Author/Illustrator: With a seemingly white American male author and Cuban-born illustrator, neither come from the culture depicted. In comparison to the biography on the Oyez Supreme Court, there is evidence that sufficient research has been done regarding the portrayal of the real-life Sonia Sotomayor. In fact, the lengthy author’s note fills in more biographical detail. I downloaded an ebook copy of the book to read it in its entirety. The facts mirror those on the Oyez. I was unable to locate reviews for information not already provided in the author's note.
Copyright Date: This title was published November 10th 2009 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers and addresses cultural issues of childhood poverty and adult racist accusations with contemporary sensibilities. It also highlights the feat of accomplishing the first seat as a Latina woman.
Sensibility: The book portrays a health, wealth, and race struggle between a minority character and the dominant culture. It doesn't really address the weight to the conflict, and the minority character's right to justice, more so explain how she overcame her obstacles.
Language: Language was my biggest qualm because there are so many nuances to the Spanish language. Dialects vary by the country and shift even more with locations of immigration concentrations. I specifically sought Español Puertorriqueño (the dialect of Spanish in Puerto Rico) versus Castilian (Standard Spanish used in Spain). While the translation was good, it was a very neutral Spanish (Castilian). The author primarily used Castilian with just a few Español Puertorriqueño words that are traditionally from Puerto Rico. For example, chavitos ( money/coins), arroz y habichuelas ( habichuelas = beans) (In other countries, beans are called differently), and Ay bendito (a very puerto rican saying meaning like poor thing or like southern people would say “ bless your heart” but it could be used in different ways). And of course, there were other influences of New York migration that I may have missed with no context of the area.
Overall I feel this was an inspiring portrayal of a New York woman and first generation immigrant of Puerto Rican decent. In fact, it received Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s seal of approval among the raves and reviews on the publisher’s website, “Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich” (Sotomayor,2009). I feel this story will resonate with Latinx immigrant children.
References:
Harkless, R. [Rosaland Harkless]. (2018, September 29). Sonia Sotomayor a judge grows in the Bronx. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/17WoheBNFCI
Sotomayor, S. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved December 1, 2020, from https://www.oyez.org/justices/sonia_sotomayor
Sotomayor, S. (2009). Raves and Reviews. Sonia Sotomayor a judge grows in the Bronx /La juez que creció en el Bronx. Retrieved from https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sonia-Sotomayor/Jonah-Winter/9781442403031
Accurate representation of cultural specifics: Puerto Rico is named explicitly as the unincorporated territory of the United States origence for the protagonist's parents where appropriate. The storyline ranges from the mid 1950's to the modern-day, yet the style of dress does not reflect any distinguishable silhouettes or fashion staples to accurately represent time period. Unfortunately, Sonia Sotomayor's childhood pictures available online show better era-appropriate dress than this book. Yet, each pictured setting includes details according to with the textual settings. The intergenerational values of family, respect, education, language, and pride, prevalent in the culture, were depicted except for religion.
Avoidance of stereotypes: While this story mainly chronicles a single character's life, the supporting characters were depicted as individuals. From the white male doctor's visit to the meeting with Black male and former President Barak Obama, the protagonist was shown with a few supporting characters of diverse skin tones and ethnicities. The variety of activities included family time, studying, and daily activities. From aspirations to be a detective to becoming a judge, the protagonist did not perform activities traditionally thought of as male or female activities. Instead, she behaved in ways that more accurately represent the contemporary diversity of roles.
Achievement: The protagonist was shown to be resourceful in overcoming her childhood diabetes medical limitations of being a detective to aspiring to be a judge. She later overcame her loneliness, isolation, and homesickness in college by immersing herself in her studies and leading a campus Latinx student social organization. She proved capable of solving her own problems. With the mother and later president's exception, not many authority figures were depicted or presented to support diversity in ethnicity and gender. Again with the centering on the protagonist and her single-parent household in the beginning, the presentation of power dynamics equally distributed among characters of various ethnicities and genders remained void.
Author/Illustrator: With a seemingly white American male author and Cuban-born illustrator, neither come from the culture depicted. In comparison to the biography on the Oyez Supreme Court, there is evidence that sufficient research has been done regarding the portrayal of the real-life Sonia Sotomayor. In fact, the lengthy author’s note fills in more biographical detail. I downloaded an ebook copy of the book to read it in its entirety. The facts mirror those on the Oyez. I was unable to locate reviews for information not already provided in the author's note.
Copyright Date: This title was published November 10th 2009 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers and addresses cultural issues of childhood poverty and adult racist accusations with contemporary sensibilities. It also highlights the feat of accomplishing the first seat as a Latina woman.
Sensibility: The book portrays a health, wealth, and race struggle between a minority character and the dominant culture. It doesn't really address the weight to the conflict, and the minority character's right to justice, more so explain how she overcame her obstacles.
Language: Language was my biggest qualm because there are so many nuances to the Spanish language. Dialects vary by the country and shift even more with locations of immigration concentrations. I specifically sought Español Puertorriqueño (the dialect of Spanish in Puerto Rico) versus Castilian (Standard Spanish used in Spain). While the translation was good, it was a very neutral Spanish (Castilian). The author primarily used Castilian with just a few Español Puertorriqueño words that are traditionally from Puerto Rico. For example, chavitos ( money/coins), arroz y habichuelas ( habichuelas = beans) (In other countries, beans are called differently), and Ay bendito (a very puerto rican saying meaning like poor thing or like southern people would say “ bless your heart” but it could be used in different ways). And of course, there were other influences of New York migration that I may have missed with no context of the area.
Overall I feel this was an inspiring portrayal of a New York woman and first generation immigrant of Puerto Rican decent. In fact, it received Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s seal of approval among the raves and reviews on the publisher’s website, “Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich” (Sotomayor,2009). I feel this story will resonate with Latinx immigrant children.
References:
Harkless, R. [Rosaland Harkless]. (2018, September 29). Sonia Sotomayor a judge grows in the Bronx. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/17WoheBNFCI
Sotomayor, S. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved December 1, 2020, from https://www.oyez.org/justices/sonia_sotomayor
Sotomayor, S. (2009). Raves and Reviews. Sonia Sotomayor a judge grows in the Bronx /La juez que creció en el Bronx. Retrieved from https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sonia-Sotomayor/Jonah-Winter/9781442403031
bethany_booklover's review against another edition
5.0
The book “Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx” is written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Edel Rodriguez. The author uses bilingualism by equally representing the Spanish language and the English language. I would give this book a 5 star rating. This book does a fabulous job of presenting Sonia’s life in an accurate, yet still poetic, intriguing way. The book includes the development of authentic people in the story by presenting accurate portrayals of Sonia’s life. There wasn’t any sugar coating when it came to the circumstances of her childhood, however the author made clear to mention the love that her family surrounded her with, was substantial. The book falls into the genre of biography, since it details the life events of Sonia Sotomayor. The illustrations are very detailed, and add significant context to the story. Most of the time, the English text appears above the Spanish text, however not always. On some of the spreads, the text sections are intermixed, the English and Spanish excerpts sprinkled throughout the page. The backmatter features an author’s note with a longer, more in depth retelling of Sonia’s childhood, career, and personal life. There’s also an author and illustrator bio on the back flap sleeve of the book. The front flap of the sleeve contains a summary of the book, written in both English and Spanish.
lauralynnwalsh's review against another edition
4.0
I like the dual Spanish/English text. The illustrations are good and the story is good. I like the emphasis on hard work. Maybe that is politically correct right now, but it is true, too. Enjoyable.
wordnerd153's review against another edition
4.0
Inspiring biography written in both English and Spanish.