Becoming Naomi Leon a realistic fiction novel with audio and Pura Belpre award winner

Becoming Naomi Leon is written by: Pam Munoz Ryan. An illustrator is not listed for this book.

This book was published by scholastic in 2006.

This book is appropriate for 5-7th grades.

An unpopular fifth grader, Naomi spends lots of time in the library. Naomi's talent is carving objects out of soap. After being gone for seven years, her mother shows up one day with a scary boyfriend, Clive. They're worried that she will assert her parental rights and take the children away. Naomi is insecure and particularly susceptible to her mother's attention. Gram, the neighbors, and the children go to Oaxaca to find the children's father and get him to sign papers making Gram their guardian. Their dad is thrilled to see them, and Naomi learns that her talent for soap carving is inherited from her father. (summary adapted from www.amazon.com).

This book is great for talking about character dynamics. Each character adds something to the story. The story also has several climatic points that can help students understand climax and resolution.

This book helped me sympathesize with students who come from broken homes or who have irresponsible parents. This is becoming more and more common.