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From the Bellybutton of the Moon: And Other Summer Poems / Del Ombligo de la Luna: Y Otros Poemas de Verano

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With a poet's magical vision, Francisco X. Alarcón takes young readers back to his childhood when he traveled with his family to Mexico to visit his grandmother and other relatives. Readers ride with him in the family station wagon across the misty mountain range to the little town of Atoyac, the beloved town of his ancestors. There he listens his grandma's colorful stories, samples Auntie Reginalda's tasty breakfasts, learns about the keys to the universe, and take playful dips in the warm sea.

Maya Christina Gonzalez's lighthearted illustrations perfectly capture the spirit of a summer in Alarcón's Mexico where "colors are more colorful, tastes are tastier, and even time seems to slow down."

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

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Francisco X. Alarcón

45 books17 followers

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5 stars
34 (32%)
4 stars
33 (31%)
3 stars
28 (26%)
2 stars
7 (6%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for Erin Ramai.
146 reviews
March 23, 2010
This book is appropriate for children ages 5-10. It received a Pura Belpre Author Honor Award in 2000.

From the Bellybutton of the Moon: And Other Summer Poems is a collection of poems about Alarón’s childhood summers in Mexico. Because I speak Spanish, I really appreciated this bilingual poetry book. Sometimes I enjoyed the Spanish version of the poem more, which surprised me. However, because Francisco X. Alarcón is Mexican, it makes sense that the sound of the poem would be best in his native tongue. The placement of the poems within the vibrant paintings of Maya Christina Gonzalez, is pure perfection. The poems appear in the middle of sunflowers, the front of an apron and the flat metal surface of a spatula, floating along a summer breeze, on oranges, and in wheels of air and water. My favorite illustration, by far, was of Mariposa the cow, who has a spot on the front of her face in the shape of a butterfly. The poems I enjoyed most were: “1. From the Bellybutton of the Moon” and “2. From the Bellybutton of the Moon”, “Mariposa”, “Question”, “Bilingual” and “Ode to My Shoes”.

This book could be used to teach children how to write themed poetry, particularly about seasons or childhood. Also, because some of the poems are quite short, but very effective, it demonstrates that there are various acceptable ways to write poetry. As I teach my students, poetry can be anything you want it to be; there is a tremendous amount of freedom in subject and form.
Profile Image for Linda.
36 reviews
February 8, 2010
This is a colorful book of poetry that follows the childhood memories of Alarcón as he and his family venture back to Mexico each summer. The poems vary from celebrating the wind that blows in the car on the journey down to celebrating the green color of the summer months. The culture of the Mexican-American families that took this journey is celebrated with the bilingual text. It is evident that this collection of poems is authentic to the warm memories of being from two cultures and celebrating both of them for their specific purpose.

This could be used as a wonderful tool for teaching how to write poetry at the elementary level. Students could study how Alarcón create poetry by using one powerful word that creates strong visualization. The construction of vivid yet simple vocabulary to share the joy of summer across cultures is a wonderful literary technique demonstrated in this book.
Profile Image for Jenny.
2,916 reviews31 followers
November 15, 2014
This is a lovely collection of poems about children who visit their family in Mexico. The illustrations are bright and colorful and help you imagine the heat of the trip and bring the poems to life. I read this with my children. I would read the poem in English and one of them would read the poem in Spanish, taking turns who went first and which child got to read in Spanish.

As a child, my favorite poem might have been

Hierba verde (GREEN GRASS)
nos gusta (WE LOVE)
andar descalzos (TO GO SHOELESS)
entre la hierba verde (ON GREEN GRASS)

a la Madre Tierra (MOTHER EARTH)
le encanta hacernos (LOVES TO TICKLE)
cosquillas en los pies (OUR BARE FEET)

I've always preferred to be barefoot than to wear shoes, particularly in the grass.

But my very favorite poem is Keys to the Universe.
my Grandpa
Pancho
taught us

my brothers
my sisters
and me

our first
letters
in Spanish

his living
room was
our classroom

"and these are
the true keys
to the universe"

he'd tell us
pointing to
the letters

of the alphabet
on the makeshift
blackboard

*I'm looking forward to reading the other three poetry books by this duo.

Profile Image for Jill.
2,195 reviews89 followers
April 21, 2012
This bilingual collection of 22 poems was inspired by the author’s recollections of childhood summers in Mexico. Some of the poems, like “Green Grass” are quite short “We love/ to go shoeless/ on green grass/ Mother Earth/ loves to tickle/ our bare feet/”) and some, like “Ancient Wisdom” are longer. Some are written as part of the design of the illustration, like “Water Wheel” in which the poem whirls around circles of blue and white water, or "Sea" in which the words are part of the waves. All are presented in both English and Spanish on the same page.

Maya Christina Gonzalez's illustrations resemble folk paintings, with bold colors and happy scenes of summer fun and close family life. The text and design are innovatively complementary, which adds to the impact of the whole.

All in all, this is a joyous production, and a most pleasing way to teach children another language.
Profile Image for Phil J.
734 reviews58 followers
April 1, 2017
I read this in an effort to add diverse poetry to my repertoire. Sadly, it's a bit of a turkey. The illustrations are computer generated and feel very flat. The poems (at least the English ones) are boring and uninspired. They mostly feel like a sentence was broken into a bunch of lines. There's more to poetry than that. There were a couple glimmers- the water cycle poem, for example, but the book was mostly lame.

My 5yo liked that the book had the word "belly button" in the title, and she thought the colors were pretty, so your mileage my vary.
Profile Image for Sam Grace.
473 reviews51 followers
March 23, 2010
I read these to my monolingual (English-speaking) nephew, and the poems were so short and so beautiful sounding that he didn't mind sitting through them in Spanish before hearing them in English at all!

They are good to read aloud, but they are also good ON the page.

I agreed with back cover, too, the illustrator's art is joyful and bright and works very well with the poems.
50 reviews1 follower
December 4, 2015
"From the Belly button of the moon: And other summer poems" is a poetry book in which all the poems are about summer. From Mountain Mist to crossing Mexico’s mountain range, to Mariposa (the name of a cow), and the Water Wheel- all the water that makes Earth turn. This poetry book does not only have poems in English, but it also has poems written in Spanish, next to the English version. The poems in this book are fun because some of them are concrete and others are not. The illustrations are very bright and colorful, and give the reader some cultural insight. I would not do anything different in this book. I really appreciated the big, bright illustrations, as well as subtlety showing the difference in cultural backgrounds that are wove into the poems; it creates diversity and gives the readers an insight on a culture they may not be familiar with, whether it is Spanish or English. This book is also important when used in a classroom because it does not only give the readers on an insight on a culture they are not familiar with, but it is also beneficial to the student in the class who is a minority. Having books like these in a classroom can make children feel more safe and comfortable.
36 reviews
December 14, 2009
1st – 6th grade
This book is in both Spanish and English which make it a great book for a multi-cultural class or class unit. The poems are simple in vocabulary which is why I feel it would be appropriate for even a first grader. The poems seem to simply describe the illustrations or topics for which they are about. An example being: Sunflower, somewhat a flower somehow a sun. The text is relative to a concrete idea however still abstract enough to require critical thinking skills at many different levels. The illustrations of the book are very vibrant and full of bright and cheerful colors. This book would appeal to students because of its simplicity and easy to understand poetry makes it appealing to a beginner poem reader.
Classroom Connection:
Language Arts: I would use this in a 5-6th grade class to break down the meaning of the poems and try to understand why the author chose the descriptors for each poem. Then have students make some poems of their own.

Speech- I would have the children read their favorite poem in front of the class.
Profile Image for Dolly.
Author 1 book659 followers
November 17, 2014
This book offers an interesting collection of summer-themed poems in Spanish and English. I tried to read one of the poems in Spanish, but our girls knew that I was butchering it too much, so I stopped.

What we did, though, is look for Spanish words that we could understand or associate with words in the English versions (especially colors.)

The poems are short and fun to read aloud and the illustrations are vibrantly colorful and cartoonish. We all learned that "the Aztec name for this city (Mexico) comes from metztli (moon), xictli (bellybutton), and o (from)." (p. 2)

We enjoyed reading this book together and we are looking forward to reading more of the poetry books about the seasons by this author.

interesting quote:

Keys to the Universe

my Grandpa
Pancho
taught us

my brothers
my sisters
and me

our first
letters
in Spanish

his living
room was
our classroom

"and these are
the true keys
to the universe"

he'd tell us
pointing to
the letters

of the alphabet
on the makeshift
blackboard
(p. 24)
Profile Image for S10_tommccormack.
35 reviews1 follower
July 21, 2010
Ages: 9 and up

"From the Bellybutton of the Moon" is a bilingual book of free verse by Francisco X. Alarcón that chronicles his childhood experiences in Mexico. The poetry is very simple and accessible, but the images are powerful. The poems deal mostly with nature and are accompanied by the colorful, lively paintings of Maya Christiana Gonzalez.

The book contains the poems in their original Spanish and in English.

This book would serve as a perfect introduction to poetry. Students could easily model their own poems after Alarcón's due to their simple structures and vocabulary. Also, students could easily incorporate nature imagery into their work.

The book's cultural content, which is autobiographical, seems authentic. References to Mexico and Mexican culture are somewhat subtle, so they might not be readily apparent to younger readers, but the pictures include many cultural references that reinforce the imagery in the poems.

41 reviews
Read
September 7, 2013
Ok, first of all, I like bilingual books. They help children who speak English as a second language to feel comfortable reading as well as help them learn English. It also helps kids who speak English both learn another language and know what it feels like to read another language and take a glimpse into another culture. This book in particular, I both loved and hated. The online experience was terrible, it took me four tries to actually read it (kept getting server errors). Once it actually worked the words were covered in white boxes so I could only read it if I "zoomed in text". The actual story was also a little shaky. I really like the poems and especially the part about question marks being seahorses. I didn't like the plot. Some parts it seemed like there was a continuous story, some parts were just randomly placed. I felt almost tricked, like "hey, there's a story line here you need to follow." "Oh, wait, haha, no there isn't! Got ya!".
Profile Image for Tami Roberts.
41 reviews2 followers
December 4, 2009
1st -5th Grade (Read aloud or independent reading)

Gonzalez paints vivid, colorful pictures to illustrate Alarcόn’s poetry that would easily draw in young children. Alarcόn includes the Spanish and English translation for each poem in this book. It seems to me that most of the poems included in this collection pertain to Mexico, I feel that most English speaking readers would not be able to relate to those poems, but may find the cultural background of a different ethnic group interesting. This book would be good to use in a classroom that in multi-cultural or when teaching on different cultural backgrounds.

Language Arts/Social Studies
Lesson plan idea: After reading this book with your students discuss how the author’s life compares and contrasts with our own, make a graph showing the differences and similarities.
Profile Image for Stephene.
40 reviews
December 9, 2009
Kindergarten to 2nd grade
Gonzalez's vibrant, color-filled illustrations enhance Alarcon's simple, yet meaningful poems. Children will find appeal with the art, as well as the bilingual representation of the poetry on each page. Poems in this book focus on nature and summer, and rhyming is evident in many of the pieces. Images of the ocean and sky and islands are created in the mind in elegant snippets of phrases that encourage development and appreciation of poetry.
Related content: Art, Science, Language Arts
Lesson Idea: Students will write a poem about nature and with the help of the teacher, translate it into Spanish.
Profile Image for Tara Weaver.
40 reviews2 followers
December 3, 2009
1-3 (read alone)

Del Ombligo de la Luna uses bright colorful pictures to display what is going on in each poem. There is one to two poems on each page and each one of them is in Spanish and English. Some of the poems are relatively short. Some of the lines are repeated but I did not see any rhyme used. This book would be appealing to a child that is bilingual or is learning to speak Spanish or English.

Language Arts/Reading

This book could be used for spanish speaking students that are having a hard time learning English or reading English.
Profile Image for Cheryl.
10.5k reviews448 followers
November 21, 2018
Mixed reactions in Children's Books group.
........
Art style an homage to Rivera, I'm sure.
Poems mostly free verse and may not resonate with all, but I found them both lyrical and engaging.

The poems have a variety of themes and lengths, and there are even two concrete science verses.

Most importantly for educators, this entirely bilingual book is "Own Voices" and has notes from the creators at the back.

Recommended.

*Sol de verano*

luminosa
naranja
colgado
del a'rbol
del mediodi'a
51 reviews
December 10, 2013
Another great book filled with poems in both English and Spanish. The illustrations in this book help the reader indulge in the heat the characters are feeling and become more engaged with the text. This would be another great book to introduce multicultural and seasonal lessons when in a classroom. Students could delight in the opportunity to read the Spanish versus the English of each poem individually.
40 reviews
December 4, 2009
Grades Pre-K – 3rd

This bilingural book is full of rhymes and short sentences. the imagery is playful, large and covers the entire page. Many of the poems are short and and are descriptive of the poem being talk about (describing the sun).

Life Science /Language Arts

Lesson idea: Students can study about the different elements of the earth


Profile Image for Atziri.
69 reviews7 followers
September 12, 2011
I wasn't really excited with this book, the poems in English and Spanish, at times didn't make any sense to me. The illustrations were very colorful and, from my perspective, carried the book rather than the story. Too bad, I believe this is a well recognized Mexican-American author, but his book did not excite me.
Profile Image for Jen.
2,396 reviews40 followers
June 21, 2012
Sometimes bilingual books have a heavy bent towards the author's home culture. This one, not so much. It mentions Mexico a few times, but could be relatable to anyone with a bilingual heritage. These poems are well done, and Spanish and English are equally presented on both pages. The pictures are brightly colored.
Profile Image for Nicole Hampel.
57 reviews
November 9, 2021
I love that this book gives a reader an easy way to gain some vocabulary knowledge within this poetic book. I have been trying to find great bilingual books to have in my classroom and this is one to add for sure! This also can be a bit of an easier read for a developing reader but also for and ELL student. LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!
Genre: Picturebook Poetry Billingual Year: 2005
Profile Image for Nancy.
124 reviews10 followers
February 8, 2009
Another great contribution by Francisco X. Alarcon. Every elementary classroom should invite his books in so that they can tickle the tongues and warm the hearts of children. I love "Ode to My Shoes".
41 reviews
September 9, 2013
I think the book has a series of teaching Spanish that are children’s books. All of series are all bilingual edition and apt to the young children reading those series. I really recommend those kids who want to be a bilingual speaker can read these book of series.
Profile Image for Crystal.
2,194 reviews123 followers
January 3, 2015
I love this mix of poetry. There are short, long, funny and serious poems. Some are concrete too. Some that stand out to me are Bilingual (about the dog that barks in both Spanish and English), Daily Shower (sidewalks get a shower), Mariposa (the cow named butterfly), and Sunflower.
Profile Image for Sara.
124 reviews
August 4, 2015
This book was nice, but it wasn't my favorite. I felt the poems were too simplistic and the drawings took up more space on the page, which distracted from the poems, rather than adding to them. I think the subject matter was not fully explored.
Profile Image for Precious Hill.
17 reviews
June 7, 2016
This book is a great book. This books gives us children poems in English and Spanish. I believe this book is geared toward 2-5 grade. The illustration in the books tells the story without reading the words.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

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