The Land of Forgotten Girls

Title:  The Land of Forgotten Girls
Author & Illustrator: Erin Entrada Kelly

APA Bibliographic Information: Kelly, E. E. (2017). The land of forgotten girls. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Genre: Fiction
Lexile: 640L

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Summary: 

This book is about a young girl named Soledad.  She was born in the Philippines but moved to the United States after her sister and mother passed away.  She moved there with her dad, younger sister Ming and her mean stepmother Vea.  After arriving to the United States their father abandoned them and went back to their native country. Soledad also struggles to protect her sister from not only their stepmother but from the kids who pick at her at school.  Soledad tries to find hope in that one day she and her sister will have a happier future and will live with a mother that does love them. Soledad's only friend at the beginning of the book is a boy name, Manny.  In this book we see both of them picking on a young girl from a different school because she is Albino.  They call her Casper and throw things at her but Soledad starts to feel bad and apologizes.  Once she gets to know Caroline better, they become great friends. 

Who Would Enjoy this book? (Targeted Audience) :

This book would be perfect for a fourth or fifth-grade class.  It's a novel that introduces children to a different culture and to characters with different ethnicities and backgrounds. Not only this but it shows how two kids bully a girl because she has a different skin pigment than most people. They also bully her because they are jealous that she goes to a more affluent school and lives in a nice home. We are able to see them call her names and even physically hurt her at one point but we also see how Soledad solves the problem she has cause and even becomes friends with her. I think young students would benefit from reading this book because it would allow for them to see how the main character finds light and positivity in all the negative situations she goes through. Personally, I also that the book was very engaging and it makes the reader want to keep reading. 

Evaluation Of Text: 

I would rate this a five out of five stars when it comes to evaluating the text because I really enjoyed how the author wrote the book.  This book is great in creating imagery because the author does a good job describing both her character and the setting. There is a lot of suspense and unexpected turns that keep you interested and make you want to keep reading it. The chapters are not very long which makes it a lot easier especially if you are reading this book as a class.  

Reader Response Activity: 

For this book, I would have an in-depth class discussion with my students. There are many types of discussions that you are able to have this book. You could do this as a whole group discussion or break your class into groups so they can discuss among themselves. Some questions that you could ask your students could be, Why do you think that Soledad and Manny bully Caroline so much? or How do you think that Soledad can do or what strategies can she use to defend her sister from bullies? or What are some difficulties that Soledad might have faced immigrating to the United States from another country?. If you don't want to do a discussion, you could always have them write down the answer to the question but it would be good for them to hear what their peers think and have to say.