2012 One Book For Kids Selection: "Armando and the Blue Tarp School" by Edith Hope Fine and Judith Pinkerton Josephson.
A truck horn sounds through Armando’s Colonia, his neighborhood, near the city dump. Señor David is back, setting up the school on a blue tarp spread on the ground. Oh, how Armando longs to go to this school, but he knows he must help his father pick through trash in the dump for things his family can use, recycle, or sell.
When Armando’s parents, at last, decide to let him spend afternoons at Señor David’s school, Armando is overjoyed. He’ll learn to read and write. He’ll learn numbers. Best of all, he’ll draw pictures. And one momentous day Armando’s love of drawing helps bring an almost unimaginable treasure to the children of the Colonia.
Told with honesty and hope, “Armando and the Blue Tarp School” is a testament to the pursuit of dreams and the power of one person to make a difference in the lives of others.
