The Treasure on Gold Street / El Tesoro en la Calle d'Oro

December 1, 2003
K-Gr 2-One of Hannah's best friends is Isabel, a mentally challenged adult who plays with her. Like Hannah, Isabel enjoys taking walks with her mom, finding old toys in the grass, coloring, and using the wading pool. She's just bigger, and since both her family and neighbors accept her as she is-even as a kind of gift-Hannah thinks that Isabel is great. It's only when an older girl points out that she is "too old" to play that Hannah has any inkling at all that her friend is different in a problematic way. However, when Isabel's birthday rolls around, everyone comes to celebrate; and Hannah's mother shows just how special her friend is. This is at once a sensitive treatment of the mentally challenged and a celebration of the real-life Isabel. Best suited for independent readers, the lengthy text flows smoothly in both English and in the informed Spanish translation. The illustrations are a bit less successful. The foreground consists of detailed pencil-and-watercolor portraits done in a realistic style. The backgrounds are rendered in a cartoon style in what appears to be pen and ink and watercolor. The two work together well on some spreads and uneasily on others, rather like a Blues Clues background dropped into a set of carefully rendered portraits. Regardless, the unsentimental tone of the text makes this a good introduction to the subject and could serve, especially in excerpted form, as a discussion starter.

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2004
This bilingual story about the effect Isabel, a mentally disabled woman, has on the author's El Paso neighborhood is ostensibly narrated by Byrd's granddaughter, Hannah. The sentimental text is more tribute to the real-life Isabel than satisfying story, though Hannah's thoughts on Isabel's interaction with children are interesting. The illustrations are an unsuccessful melding of realistic and cartoonlike styles.

(Copyright 2004 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)