Alma Flor Ada

Barquitos de papel
Barquitos de papel

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The sim­ple expe­ri­ence of sail­ing folded paper boats after a rain storm is a win­dow into the rela­tion­ship between father and daughter

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I am fre­quently asked, by chil­dren and adults alike, which, among the many books I have writ­ten is my favorite. I try to explain that I cher­ish each of my books, because I have writ­ten each one with love and they all have taught me some­thing about myself. But I must con­fess that my books of mem­oirs, Where the Flame Trees Bloom or Allá donde flo­re­cen los fram­boy­anes and Under the Royal Palms or Bajo las pal­mas reales, as well as those in the series Cuen­tos con Alma, have a spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance because with them I have not only tried to cap­ture the days of my child­hood but I have hon­ored the mul­ti­ple peo­ple who made my child­hood mem­o­rable. These books, as well as the mem­oirs I have writ­ten for adult read­ers, Vivir en dos idiomas have been my way of thank­ing those who enriched my spirit and taught me so much about try­ing to honor each day the gift of life.

Some of the great­est joys in my child­hood came from very sim­ple activ­i­ties, as I have shared in the five books of mem­oirs in the series Cuen­tos con Alma: The mak­ing of paper boats, in Bar­quitos de papel, the nurs­ery rhyme games, in Pin pin sarabín, fly­ing kites in Bar­riletes, the annual visit of the hum­ble cir­cus, in Días de circo and the street vendor’s calls in Pre­gones, all held joy and life lessons.

My father, a sur­veyor and pro­fes­sor of math­e­mat­ics, was also very gifted with his hands and he found ways to teach in sur­pris­ing ways. There was much more to rainy days than mak­ing paper boats, although I have cho­sen them as the cen­ter of this vignette which speaks above all the love of a father for his young daughter.

Paper boats have remained to this day a won­der­ful sym­bol for me. I have men­tioned them also in the poem La llu­via, in Do, re, mi, ¡sí, sí! book #8 in Colec­ción Música amiga series. It has been a great joy for me that Suni Paz would cre­ate won­der­ful music for that poem, which she has recorded in the Do, re, mi, ¡sí, sí! CD. And the joy of paper fold­ing is the motive for Origami in Con ton y son, book # 5 in Colec­ción Música amiga.

READERS’ RESPONSES

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