The Pool Party

by Gary Soto, Robert Casilla (Illustrator)

While helping his father and grandfather work as gardeners in Fresno, California, ten-year-old Rudy sees some differences between his Mexican-American family and the wealthy families that live nearby.

104 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Gary Soto is the author of eleven poetry collections for adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Film Excellence. In 1997, because of his advocacy for reading, he was featured as NBC’s Person-of-the-Week. In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes. He divides his time between Berkeley, California and his hometown of Fresno.

Reviews

[Heatherl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for read a aloud. The third graders loved it. You need some background on Spanish pronounciations.

[Ariannna · Rating 4 out of 5]

plzz

[Francie Pantsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So-so from Soto

I found no emotional depth to the characters. The flagrant stereotyping of middle class values and displays of wealth were transparent and unrealistic.