Super Cilantro Girl / La superniña del cilantro

by Juan Felipe Herrera, Honorio Robledo Tapia (Illustrator)

What happens when a small girl suddenly starts turning green, as green as a cilantro leaf, and grows to be fifty feet tall? She becomes Super Cilantro Girl, and can overcome all obstacles, that’s what! Esmeralda Sinfronteras is the winning super-hero in this effervescent tale about a child who flies huge distances and scales tall walls in order to rescue her mom. Award-winning writer Juan Felipe Herrera taps into the wellsprings of his imagination to address and transform the concerns many first-generation children have about national borders and immigrant status. Honorio Robledo Tapia has created brilliant images and landscapes that will delight all children.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

Published June 19, 2003

About the author

Juan Felipe Herrera is the only son of Lucha Quintana and Felipe Emilio Herrera; the three were campesinos living from crop to crop on the roads of the San Joaquín Valley, Southern California and the Salinas Valley. Herrera's experiences as the child of migrant farmers have strongly shaped his work, such as the children's book Calling the Doves, which won the Ezra Jack Keats award in 1997. He is a poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist who draws from real life experiences as well as years of education to inform his work. Community and art has always been part of what has driven Herrera, beginning in the mid-seventies, when he was director of the Centro Cultural de la Raza, an occupied water tank in Balboa Park converted into an arts space for the community.
Herrera’s publications include fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children in the last decade with twenty-one books in total.

Reviews

[Christopher Angulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gem.

[Lacey Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book for both English and Spanish learners because there is both English and Spanish in the book.

[Mercedes Arroyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a book discussing the immigration topic to children, this is the book for you. The book is a superhero fiction and is also bilingual. The author does great at creating the main character, Esme, to be a superhero saving her mom from border patrol. The character Esme showed bravery and could be a great role model for children. The book connected with my topic because it offered a great perspective on immigration. Immigration is a part of Latin American culture because many Latin Americans were not born within the United States. There is a concrete problem and solution. There are plenty of concepts that can be discussed with children such as immigration, why Esme’s mother was stopped and arrested, what is a green card, and citizenship. I believe it may be a little advanced for Kindergarteners, but if it is explained properly they may be able to grasp the concept. I think it may be a better fit for first graders and up. The way Esme saved her mother from jail is not really how someone is released from US-Mexico border patrol. But the concept of immigration is realistic. There is a good amount of artwork to hold the children’s interest and the images correspond to the text. Since the characters are mainly Esme’s family, characters only represent Mexican culture. As a result, there is not much variety or diversity within the Latin American culture. Every character was tan and had black hair. The author does a nice job with incorporating a few Spanish terms within the English text. The book is written in Spanish and English, which is great for ELL students. The author and illustrator are Mexican and represented by the character’s cultural group.

[Gerardo Rodriguez]

This story is about a young girl who battles the foes of those who keep her mom away in the largest holding cell known to man. She is a hero who uses the power of cilantro to help visit and free her mother from a holding cell where she is being held for not being properly documented. The main theme of the story is connected to a larger issue that is seen heavily in Hispanic Culture, and that topic is immigration. I wanted to use this topic for my Text Set because I wanted to get an insight and a perspective on how immigration can impact others and families of those who are Hispanic; social issues are also a part of the culture.
I think the book is a quality book because it does not lack the pieces needed to make the book boring or unrealistic. The illustrations keep the students entertained, while the story keeps thickening and constantly keeps the readers wanting to know more. I think it is great because the book is so inclusive to Hispanic and Latinx students. They are able to find a sense to relate to because the story is being told from a Mexican-American perspective. Therefore, it gives us insight and allows for the students to dismantle any stereotypes that they may have had with their classmates before they are too concrete to forget. I would also like to point out that just because it does come from a Mexican American perspective does not mean that no other group can view it.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Age of Readership:

6-older

Genre:

bilingual picture book

Diversity:

Mexican-American/border region

Illustrations:

Done by Honorio Robledo Tapia, painted and very native in nature. Large features (eyes, mouth). Very colorful, every page, with full backgrounds of wherever Super Cilantro Girl is.

Personal Response:

I actually found this book a little scary. The forward by Juan Felipe Herrera states the book is to show how easily families can become separated by the border, and what a tragedy the border situations is. The end of the book is happy, but the struggle up to then can go either way. Certain words choices show a sort of socio-economic difference, like Esmeralda's bedroom door is a curtain, and in the beginning of the book she is picking a bouquet of cilantro because it is a bouquet they can afford.

Curricular or programming connections:

Family connections and border issues are the big issues and program this book could help with. Also, showing strong female protagonists.

[Katherine Fountain · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the bilingual text and plot would be great for English Language Learners and a diverse classroom, I found the facial images in the pictures to be rather scary and the book is much more intense than I was expecting for a children's book. The story is about an immigrant family from Mexico who is separated at the Mexican-American border through detainment and the young child makes a bouquet from Cilantro since that is all they can afford. While very intense, the story depicts the harsh reality of immigrants in America. My favorite aspect of the story is the bilingual text in English and Spanish.

[Fisal Ansari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Age of readership: Ages 4-8

Genre: Picture Book

Diversity: Cultural/

Illustrations: Drawings, pencil colors used. Lots of green to symbolize the border issues with U.S. and Mexico.

My response to the book: I thought that this was a good book to share the plight of Mexican immigrants who seek a better life in the U.S. and the border issues that are relevant to them.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I really didn't like this book, I can see how it can be used in an ESOL classroom. Children in general love the thought of a Superhero and if you can find a book that interests them, half of the work is done. The translations are great for learning English. Some kids would love the illustrations and that alone may break the ice.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book creates a wild imagination. Maybe non-fictional but has a great problem and some type of solution. This also incorporates older and newer generations and showing the importance. The illustrations are very catchy and intriguing. I liked the book and kept wanting to read on. This book can help children imagine and realize anything can happen.

[Priscilla Schelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is written bilingually in Spanish and English, so it would be a great resource for an ELL student. The adventure cilantro girl takes is to take care of her mother because of her loyalty to and love of her. However, the plot is not the best plot I've ever come across.

[Kayce · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures freaked me out, bold, colorful, but the faces of the characters were scary. The text is in both English and Spanish, which would be helpful for reading at home and for ELL (Spanish speaking) families.

[Breana Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would be a great book to read to a class that has multiple Spanish speaking children in it. The book give the English first then next to it is in Spanish. I would read the English part and ask if one of my Spanish speaking children would like to help read the Spanish part.

[N_maryellen Rosenblum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing and dealt with the idea of green cards and borders in a very child-friendly way. I will definitely buy this book and add it to my classroom library/children's library.

[Katy Houseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a cute book that would be wonderful for ELL`s. It is written in both English and Spanish, and it is a story that an ELL might can relate too.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and illustrated, addressing one of the important core issues in the USA, this book adroitly promotes the opening of frontiers between Mexico and the USA.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fan of the art.

[Hannah]

Nope. So close, but nope.