The Encounter (ABP)Rita Wirkala $15ABP
When paths cross even briefly, our lives can change in surprising and important ways. For Ernesto, a mestizo youth adopted by a Spanish couple living in San Diego, and Rosa, a Huaorani girl from Ecuador, coming together for a single fleeting, but splendid, day leads to redemption and understanding. This novel takes readers on a journey that begins with Ernesto searching for his birth family to discover that his own rite of passage will weave together with a story of environmental disaster and reveal social and family issues that include finding the truth, seeking solutions and loving the imperfect people in our lives.
Ernesto travels from north to south in search of his origins, but what he finds is redemption for his adoptive father, who is implicated in the pollution of the rain forest. In a parallel journey, Rosa leaves Amazonia behind and sets off northward in response to a call from her ailing mother, who immigrated, years before, to Oregon. The novel portrays the complex reality of teens born into lives controlled by their parents own struggles in families where the choices these parents make control how the next generation will also need to survive.
Exploring the sources of birth, culture and family in a journey tracing who we become creates an intriguing quest that is played out through Ernesto’s story of adoption, Rosa’s story of traveling to be with her sick mother, and choices made long before these teens were born. Wirkala portrays these characters with sympathy.
Rita Wirkala is an Argentine bilingual writer and a professor at the University of Washington. Her work has been published in Europe and the United States, and acclaimed by a major Spanish language newspaper. She writes young adult novels in Spanish and English, poetry, literary essays and school and homeschool textbooks. Her extensive travels as well as reading widely in different areas– such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and science, have been the sources of inspiration for all her work. A translator of children’s books, and composer of children’s songs, Wirkala is the founder of All Bilingual Press.
The Encounter (ABP)Rita Wirkala $15ABP
When paths cross even briefly, our lives can change in surprising and important ways. For Ernesto, a mestizo youth adopted by a Spanish couple living in San Diego, and Rosa, a Huaorani girl from Ecuador, coming together for a single fleeting, but splendid, day leads to redemption and understanding. This novel takes readers on a journey that begins with Ernesto searching for his birth family to discover that his own rite of passage will weave together with a story of environmental disaster and reveal social and family issues that include finding the truth, seeking solutions and loving the imperfect people in our lives.
Ernesto travels from north to south in search of his origins, but what he finds is redemption for his adoptive father, who is implicated in the pollution of the rain forest. In a parallel journey, Rosa leaves Amazonia behind and sets off northward in response to a call from her ailing mother, who immigrated, years before, to Oregon. The novel portrays the complex lives of children born into lives affected by the need to survive and in families where the choices parents make changes how the next generation will also survive.
Exploring the sources of our birth and our lives in a way to show the journey of who we become is an interesting premise that is carried out through Ernesto’s story of adoption, Rosa’s story of traveling to be with her sick mother, and the choices all sets of parents made when these teens were born. Wirkala portrays these characters with sympathy.
Rita Wirkala is an Argentine bilingual writer and a professor at the University of Washington. Her work has been published in Europe and the United States, and acclaimed by a major Spanish language newspaper. She writes young adult novels in Spanish and English, poetry, literary essays and school and homeschool textbooks. Her extensive travels as well as reading widely in different areas– such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and science, have been the sources of inspiration for all her work. A translator of children’s books, and composer of children’s songs, Wirkala is the founder of All Bilingual Press.