THE ROAD TO SANTIAGO

Based on an incident from the author’s childhood, Figueredo’s story takes place one Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) in the 1950s, after Castro’s revolution has begun in Cuba. Because rail service has been disrupted, Alfredito’s family has to find another way to travel from Havana to Santiago, across the island, to spend Christmas with Abuela and the extended family. Focused sharply on the child’s longing to celebrate with his relatives, the story of their journey reflects the circumstances of civil war without partisan rancor or needless violence. Torrecilla’s full-color illustrations embody the warmth of the text and expand on it, filling the pages with lush tropical foliage, period dress, aging vehicles, and the soldiers of the embattled president. Coupled with Liz Rosenberg’s The Silence in the Mountains (1999), this can be used to present a relatively non-threatening look at how civil violence, in two very different locales, can affect a child’s life. It also adds to the always sparsely filled shelf of first-rate multicultural Christmas tales. (Spanish words are explained within the text as well as in a glossary, which unfortunately gives incorrect accentuations for a few words.) (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)