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readaloud_mom's review
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.25
This fifth book is sweet, but seems much lighter on plot than the earlier books in the series. It's a very upbeat, positive, educational, and loving depiction of a trip to Peru, told from a perspective somewhere between tourist and insider.
Lola and her family have a lovely vacation visiting her Tia Lola in Lima, Peru, staying in the same house where Lola's mom grew up. While there are the humorous mishaps (like Ben climbing into a fountain and then pulling Lola in after him), overall the experience is one happy event after another. (Being guests at the school where Tia Lola is principal, and making new friends there! Visiting a market! Petting llamas! Visiting Pachacamac ruins!) Scattered in with the narrative, in addition to Lola's usual letters and diary entries, she also has a series of reports for school, where she journals about what she's learning on her trip.
At the end, Lola's sad when it's come to go home; but there doesn't ever really seem to be an overarching goal that Lola is working towards? (She mentions in her final letter to Tia Lola that she gave her reports at school "and everyone was amazed", but that doesn't seem to have been a major source of concern during the trip or anything.)
Some of the conversations about Lola and Ben's mixed Indigenous and Spanish heritage/Colonialism 101 are pretty great. I especially like, on page 67:
" "When did our ancestors stop living here?" I ask... [then Ben says some stuff]
..."It is a very complex history," said Mom.
"I'm complex," I say.
"That's true," she said, smiling at me..."
(Haha, I know that dodge, Mom! I also say things like, "It's complicated" when my kid asks Big Questions and I need to stall for a second while I calibrate my infodump!)
Lola and her family have a lovely vacation visiting her Tia Lola in Lima, Peru, staying in the same house where Lola's mom grew up. While there are the humorous mishaps (like Ben climbing into a fountain and then pulling Lola in after him), overall the experience is one happy event after another. (Being guests at the school where Tia Lola is principal, and making new friends there! Visiting a market! Petting llamas! Visiting Pachacamac ruins!) Scattered in with the narrative, in addition to Lola's usual letters and diary entries, she also has a series of reports for school, where she journals about what she's learning on her trip.
At the end, Lola's sad when it's come to go home; but there doesn't ever really seem to be an overarching goal that Lola is working towards? (She mentions in her final letter to Tia Lola that she gave her reports at school "and everyone was amazed", but that doesn't seem to have been a major source of concern during the trip or anything.)
Some of the conversations about Lola and Ben's mixed Indigenous and Spanish heritage/Colonialism 101 are pretty great. I especially like, on page 67:
" "When did our ancestors stop living here?" I ask... [then Ben says some stuff]
..."It is a very complex history," said Mom.
"I'm complex," I say.
"That's true," she said, smiling at me..."
(Haha, I know that dodge, Mom! I also say things like, "It's complicated" when my kid asks Big Questions and I need to stall for a second while I calibrate my infodump!)
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