the book trail: becoming naomi leon

December 31st, 2007

our guest host, kt larson, starts off our discussion of this month’s book, becoming naomi leon by pam munoz ryan. (if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, set aside an afternoon. really. it’s good. and it’s short.)

When I returned to California after seven years away, the first thing I read was Pam Muñoz Ryan’s book Esperanza Rising. It takes place in the San Joaquin valley where I grew up, and although it was about Mexican and dust-bowl farmers working in the fields (something with which I don’t have much experience), reading it made me feel like I was coming home.

Somehow (and please tell me what you think) I have a feeling that even if you didn’t grow up in the Central Valley or Lemon Tree, CA or Oaxaca, Mexico, that Ryan’s books would still hold a little of that homecoming feeling—characters that speak to you, that have a piece of your own struggles or insecurities, families that are central and important (and even a little broken), personal revelations that we have had or should have.

Characters that speak to you:

I identify with Naomi quite a bit—I feel like I have big things to say, but when I’m with groups of people, especially stronger personalities, the words can’t quite make it from my brain to my mouth. Naomi’s growth from mouse to lioness is empowering—for her and for me. I also like how her art helps her with that growth. Writing, for me, is an outlet like that.

Families that are central:

Even though Naomi’s family is less than traditional, I really like how important her family is to her. If you read a lot of YA literature, you’ll find that most protagonists are missing at least one parent, and spend most of their time in the novel independent from all adult-type characters. I’ve even heard at a writing conference that you have to “kill off,” either literally or figuratively, adult characters for YA novels to be successful (so as to let the protagonist be in control of their own actions). For the most part, I agree with that approach, but it is quite refreshing to see a protagonist that learns about her own independence and self-worth while maintaining her relationship with a strong and loving family unit.

Personal revelations:

Finally, there is the idea of identity—the “becoming” in Becoming Naomi Leon. Of course, there are many factors involved in Naomi’s growth, just as in all of ours. Her life on the border—between California and Mexico, between Owen and his tormentors, between her mother and grandmother, between English and Spanish—pull her in so many directions that it is both a joy and relief when she begins to bring those elements together to form a whole that is both flexible and strong. I think we’re all on the border of something, being pulled back and forth until we can figure out a compromise.

Etc:

Now for just a few things that I love about this book:

Owen’s tape
The book of lists
Gram
The Spray ’n Play
Baby Beluga
Animals made of radishes
Mr. Marble, the librarian (go libraries!)
Las Posadas


I’m excited to hear what you all have to say. Let’s get things going!

Filed under book trail, young adult lit |

6 Responses to “the book trail: becoming naomi leon”

  1. sarajane on January 1, 2008 4:02 pm

    I read it. I like it. I was impressed how quickly I began to like Naomi and to relate to her. The author did a wonderful job of drawing me in to Naomi’s world. I have never lived nor even been to a trailer park before. I have driven past them and will admit to you that I have never felt any connection to them. Not knowing anyone who has lived in a trailer park I guess I just thought of them as something in a movie, not a reality in my world. Sheltered?- I know. Now that I have met Naomi and Owen, Gram, Skyla and Fabiola I feel like they are real people. Their lives are real to me. The things they think about, talk about and dream about are similar to what I am doing. Don’t we all need a little tape every now and then to hold us together? This is a great YA book that everyone should read so that they can discover things about themselves and others. Lets all go to the Night of the Radishes one year. How amazing.

  2. Rebecca on January 1, 2008 5:50 pm

    I really enjoyed this book. I think one of my favorite characters was Naomi’s friend (Blanca). She started calling Naomi “Naomi the Lion” and I think that Naomi needed that in order to help her come out of her shell a little. I think we all need friends like Blanca who love us for what we are and help to lift us up and make us better. I loved Owen’s use of tape and when he pretended to have a seizure so the kids would stop tormenting him. I thought this book was great and would love to have a copy for my own personal library!

  3. Kate on January 1, 2008 6:25 pm

    Such a great counterpart to the difficult (but excellent) book we read the first time around. I like a good YA read now and then, but probably wouldn’t have picked this one up otherwise. I agree with kt that the broken nature of her family was one of the book’s strengths. It so great to see a novel tackle the issues that kids actually face in today’s world, issues of multiculturalism, addiction, custody battles. Naomi could be their everyman (everygirl?). No matter how much kids, and adults for that matter, like to read about a hobbit defeating a dark lord or a young magician with a lightning bolt scar, I think everyone needs to see themselves as the hero of a book they adore, to see themselves lionized. Leonized, right?

    I also blogged the book here:
    http://www.katejonuska.com/2008/01/01/becoming-naomi-leon-pam-munoz-ryan/

  4. jes on January 2, 2008 11:43 am

    i read this little book while basking in the sun in colorado. (hooray for the west!) i loved naomi instantly. and soft serve ice cream at the car wash.

    i knew we were kindred spirits when i learned that naomi (and a select few) ate lunch in the school library. something about that sounds familiar…

    and kt i’m glad you brought up the point about most YA characters living in broken families. interesting. not something i ever articulated consciously to myself, but now that i’m running through a list of favorite YAs, i see what you mean. and, yes, naomi stays close to her family, but it’s seriously broken up too. i was really bothered when skyla slaps naomi and naomi doesn’t tell anyone. now that i have my own little munchkin, it really frightens me to think that kids are often too scared to confide in a parent/guardian when something like that happens. eek. thankfully, ryan lets it all come out at the hearing, but still… anyone else afraid for their little ones?

    the book confronts dark issues, but sprinkles the issues with such fantastically quirky details (carving birds of soap? a radish festival? an FLK? wheel of fortune every single night?) that the whole book felt real and alive and worth it.

    nice pick, kt. i needed to see a family working things out and hanging together after watching characters in “housekeeping” so decidedly unravel.

    [here, here, sarajane. let’s go to oaxaca!]

  5. Camille on January 2, 2008 12:20 pm

    I loved this book. I love the tone she sets at the start of the novel with her language.

    It seems like today a popular trend in novels is to focus on the dark gritty side of life - even in, or perhaps especially in, ya novels. This is a book that is able to discuss real issues - poverty, abandonment, custody battles, etc. but is able to do so without being a dark book. These issues are made real by Ryan through the details like the tape on the shirt, or the soap carving used by the boyfriend to wash his hands and thrown in the garbage at Thanksgiving.

    I love the characters, their stories, their idiosyncracies and the language used to unfold them all.

  6. tardis on January 2, 2008 5:31 pm

    Is it okay for strangers to post here? I hope you don’t mind. I was looking for some reading material and I found the book trail. So I read the book and here’s what I thought.

    Skyla’s plastic nails, for me, ended up being what I thought about most after reading this one. On her return, the reader sees that the kind of person you really are can not be hidden beneath good actions or new natural names, but shows up through your actions and if you are artificial, you will hurt people. For example, are you the kind of person who would only buy the fisher-price mobile for your baby or would you paint your husband’s hand-carved homemade version? Are you the kind of person who goes through rehab because of a court order or to get better? who takes responsibility for your kids years down the road or remembers her children only when her boyfriend wants a playmate for his daughter? who accepts her children or rejects them because they are deformed? Buying your child a mobile, going to rehab, finding and taking responsibility for children left long ago, and buying matching tops to wear with your daughter seem like good ideas, but because they are artificial, they hurt people.

    The role of the FLK is to weed out the artificial and emphasize the noble. This is how we know Naomi is a lion and Skyla a tramp. Naomi isn’t a lion because she finds the courage to rehearse the whole story to the judge, but because she nobly loves Owen. The judge overturns the mediator’s recommendation not because of Naomi’s story, but because Skyla’s love for Naomi is exposed as clearly artificial when she rejects Owen.

    Thanks kt, Now I want to go to Mexico.

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