By: Joan Abelove Publisher: Puffin Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Puffin Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 192 Publication Date: July 01, 2000 Reading Level: Young Adult
Book Description: When the two old white ladies come to live in the Peruvian jungle village of Poincushmana, everyone makes a fuss--everyone but Alicia, who is baffled by the reaction of her tribe, the Isabo. But as the days pass, she too is drawn in--because the ladies (who are really in their twenties, and anthropologists) are stingy, stupid, and fun to watch. They don't understand the Isabo. Someone needs to set them straight. And that someone, surprisingly, is Alicia.
"Abelove seamlessly constructs a culture that may feel more real to readers than their own."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A startling, vibrant read." --Booklist, starred review
"Compelling . . . The spirited heroine evokes Karen Cushman's [Newbery Honor Book] Catherine, Called Birdy."--School Library Journal, starred review
"Reading this novel is like feeling wind rush through a stuffy room."--BCCB, starred cover review
Awards: ( ALA Notable Book ( ALA Best Book for Young Adults ( Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist ( Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year ( Horn Book Fanfare Book ( School Library Journal Best Book of the Year ( Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book ( Booklist Editor's Choice ( American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists"
A horrible, disgusting book. I wish I could erase it from my mind.
Another reviewer accused someone of being biased about the tribe of people, but I see that the tribe is biased about Americans. They think if we don't let them have whatever we have, then we're stingy.
They think Americans are stupid, ugly, and stuck up, when it's the Isabo who are stuck up, stupid, and fat.
I'm completely open to learning about different cultures, and learning languages, and going to visit other countries, but this tribe is not on my list of interesting, or good people to be learning about. No, it's not even the people that are distasteful. It's what they do.
Apparently the Isabo stupidly think that one man and one woman cannot have a baby (no one has corrected them in that belief), and that men are worthless, and that women are so much cooler and everything.
It's a ridiculous, annoying book about selfish, greedy people, who take advantage of other people's interest in them.
Save your money, and save your time. This book isn't worth it.
see your culture thru other eyes american tend to thinkj that there culture is the mormal one and every other one is weird this book is good for the young teens to see there culture thru others eyes. this book has plenty funny parts and sad and touching parts also.
Weird? No. Different? Definitely. Students I teach tend to think that the world they live, their customs, beliefs, is the "right" way. Everyone else is "weird" or "strange". To get them to rethink their world view, this is the first book I use during the year to expose them to elements of world culture. Through Alicia we learn her culture and way of doing things. Students are baffled that Alicia thinks what the two old ladies do (or don't do) are "weird" or "strange". By the end of the book, students realize we are all just "different" and develop their respect for other cultures.
recommended related reading: article on "Nacirema"
Reverse Point of View Alicia is a teenaged girl living in a small village in Peru. She thinks her life is pretty uninteresting and unremarkable. So she, along with her neighbors, is surprised when two white women from New York show up and ask to stay there for a year to study the people and their culture.
These white women seem very strange and stupid to Alicia and the other members of her village. They don't seem to know anything about charity, about sharing the things they have brought with them. They are seen as very rude for some of the things they do, but Alicia and her friend Elena gradually are able to make them aware of some of their biggest mistakes.
Over the course of the year, Alicia warms up to these anthropologists and is able to help them learn all there is to know about her village and the customs of the people who live there.
I liked that this was a book about a different culture but it was told from their point of view instead of from the American point of view. I really enjoyed reading about the customs and ways of life in an isolated village in Peru; I was surprised at how the attitudes and customs of the people there differed from us. I didn't like that nobody gave the American women a chance. Nobody tried to understand them or to accept that their culture was different; they just assumed the women were rude and stingy.
There is no word for good-bye This wonderful story is told in the first person narrative of Alicia, a teenaged girl in a small village in the Amazonion jungle of Peru. Two anthropologists from New York City come to observe and take notes for an entire year on the way of life of the Isabo people. Margarita is there to study the village agriculture and Joanna is to study the children. Alicia thinks that these two women are stingy because they do not follow the Isabo's custom of sharing all their food with everyone in the village immediately. The two anthropologists are also perceived as being unclean and unsociable because they only bathe once a day and relieve themselves in private. The humorous tone of this book kept the pace moving. The cultural differences are many and Alicia explains things in a matter of fact way, such as the Isabo's views on sex compared to the two American anthropologists...married women have boyfriends, teenagers have sex and couples invent reasons to slip off in the bushes. As the year progresses the two women are taught about customs and traditions of the tribe. They also learn about the subtleties of the language and the fact that there is no word for good-bye in Isabo. When two people take leave of each other, they say "Catanhue", which means go and come back. I enjoyed the differences in both cultures and feel this was a wonderful way to learn about anthropology in the Amazon jungle.
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