Before We Were Free
Hello dear readers, I will bring you the book review of Before we were free of Julia Álvarez
Book Review
Author
Born in New York City in 1950, Julia Alvarez's parents returned to their native country, Dominican Republic, shortly after her birth. Ten years later, the family was forced to flee to the United States because of her father’s involvement in a plot to overthrow the dictator, Trujillo.
Alvarez has written novels (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, ¡Yo!, In the Name of Salomé, Saving the World, Afterlife), collections of poems (Homecoming, The Other Side/ El Otro Lado, The Woman I Kept to Myself), nonfiction (Something to Declare, Once Upon A Quinceañera, and A Wedding in Haiti), and numerous books for young readers (including the Tía Lola Stories series, Before We Were Free, finding miracles, Return to Sender and Where Do They Go?).
Alvarez’s awards include the Pura Belpré and Américas Awards for her books for young readers, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award. In 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama.
Briefly
summarize the book
Anita De La Torre used to live with an extended family, her aunts, uncles cousins from the García family, doña Chucha, her brother Mundín, her sister Lucinda and her parents, and she used to believe she lived in a free country., but after she turned 12 years old, her cousins, aunts and uncles left to the United States due to the Trujillo s' dictatorship.
Then her father and her Tio Toni started to conspire against Trujillo and disappeared without a trace, and her studies were paused for a long time, she started to live with Oscar s family and she kept a diary in which she wrote her thoughts and feelings about the dictatorship.
After Trujillo was assassinated and her son, Trujillo Junior took over his place, she and her remaining family, decided to emigrate to the United States of America, in New York specifically. She reintegrated with the García sisters and her aunt and uncle, also with her sister Lucinda who emigrated a month before her.
Unfortunately, her father and her Tío Tony were assassinated with other six people who conspired against Trujillo, despite this, Anita understood what the concept of freedom was, she was in a new school, with her cousins, and they were playing with the snow by the end of the book.
Describe
the character/person who changed the most from the beginning of the book to the
end of the book. Explain the change and what caused it.
Anita De la Torre, before used to think she was free and was a very innocent girl, and then she became more aware of what was freedom and changed into a more mature person. What caused the change was the persecution of the secret police, Trujillo s' dictatorship, and the deaths of her father and Tío Tony.
Describe a minor character/person in the book o had major importance. Explain
Anita s' dad because he conspired against Trujillo s' dictatorship.
Describe
one major external conflict and one major internal conflict found in this book.
One major external conflict was Trujillo s' dictatorship, and one major internal conflict found in the book was Anita s' fears of being kidnapped and killed by Trujillo s' government.
Above you rated this book. Explain in detail why you gave this book that score.
I rated the book a 10/10 because it reminded me of Ana Frank s' Dairy, just with a lot of changes, like for example, how was the family composed, the country, ad the history itself were different, also I liked how the story was centered in Trujillo s' dictatorship and how the book was inspired in the real like of the author.
Evaluate
the end of the book. Considering how the book unfolded, is it an effective
ending? Why? Why not?
It was an effective ending because Anita got to see her cousins and live in The United States as she wanted in the beginning.
If this
book had gone one more chapter, what would have happened? Explain
If the book had gone one more chapter Anita would tell how is her life in the States with her cousins and how her academic life s' going.
Choose five
(5) of the following sentence starters and write a brief reflection for each.
1. The death of Anita s' dad made me cry.
2. I learned that we should not be afraid of changes.
3. Before We Were Free reminds me of Ana Frank s' Dairy.
4.I wonder how Doña Chucha is doing without Anita and her family.
5. I noticed that the concept of freedom is very controversial
Author’s
purpose
The author
is purpose is to entertain
Intended
audience(s)
Teenagers
13-17
Unknown
words
none
Bibliography
https://www.juliaalvarez.com/
Read you later, Sofía Books
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