Un tren llamado Esperanza / A Train Called Hope

Reviewed by: Beverly Slapin

Review Source: De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children
Book Author: Mario Bencastro

For many immigrants from Central America, part of their journey might be on top of a dangerous, speeding train. They often refer to the train as “La Bestia” (“The Beast”), and pray that they arrive in one piece. Un tren llamado Esperanza / A Train Called Hope is one person’s memory of that train ride.

On the cover, a young child is stretched out on his bed. As he plays with a toy train — a gift from his mother — that crosses “the mountain of (his) pillow into the valley (on his) bed,” the boy dreams about faraway places: big cities, mountains, the Statue of Liberty. The boy we see here is a young adult now, and this toy train was his first present. He imagined then that “the girl in the window looked just like (his) sister.”  Continue reading.

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Train called Hope by Mario Bencastro
Published by Arte Publico Press on 2021
Genres: Bilingual, Central America, Immigration and Emigration
Reading Level: Grades 3-5
ISBN: 9781518506611
Review Source: De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children

Publisher's Synopsis: This bilingual picture book contrasts a boy's enjoyment of his childhood toy train with his dangerous journey north crowded on a real train in search of family and a better future.