Kiki

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

Kiki leaves Cuba to escape the Castro regime and has to make adjustments to his new life in American. He moves from his initial stay with an elderly grandfather to foster homes-first with a very poor family and second with a very wealthy family. When his parents join him years later, they all face difficult choices. Translation of a popular Spanish language story of a young immigrant boy's adventures in Miami in the 1960s.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-8-- Sent to Miami by his parents in the early 1960s to escape Cuba's communist government, eight-year-old Kiki relates his experiences settling in the U. S. He lives first with a poor foster family in the Everglades, and then with a well-to-do one in Coral Gables, before being reunited with his own family four years later. With refreshing candor, humor, and insight, Kiki tells of encountering his first American puzzle, the automatic door; of meeting new animals, such as the raccoon; of being frightened by a ghost on what he later learns is Halloween. With a first-person narration and much fast-paced dialogue, the story could be that of any immigrant child today. Perera also has deftly woven in material about Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee tribes. Simple black-and-white line drawings complement the text and add to its appeal as a read-aloud or discussion starter. --Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA