Un Caso Grave de Rayas

I can not think of a time where I was not fond of reading. Growing up as a kid I would read a lot. If you were to ask my mother she would concur and tell you how I always had a book nearby. I recall how late at night when I was supposed to be tucked in bed sleeping, I would pull out my book from under my bed along with my flashlight and read my night away.  

One night my mother caught me in the act. She told me that she did not mind me reading, but she was displeased with me reading in the dark that late at night. My mother must have realized I was not going to listen to her, so she decided to check under my bed every night. At one point my mother noticed my passion for reading. She started by taking my brother and me to the public libraries nearby and occasionally to bookstores. She would take us at first every two to three weeks, and slowly with time she would take us once a week.

    As soon as my brother and I would walk into the doors we would part ways. My brother would always go off to find books that had anything to do with science, animals, or his favorite comic books. I, on the other hand, would go straight to the fiction section. I remember we would always end up walking out with three or more books, and as soon as we would finish them, my mother would take us back to get more. 

One evening my mom had a gift for me on the table. It was a thin box wrapped in pink gift wrap paper. She implied how while I had been at school she had it at the bookstore and it reminded her of me. I unwrapped my gift and inside was a book. My mother had bought me books before but on this occasion, my mother bought me my first Spanish book. 

Although I was a fluent speaker in Spanish and thanks to my mom’s long sitdown sessions I had learned to write and read Spanish. I was not necessarily an expert yet but was eager to learn and put words together as I read Spanish. The day she bought me the book that was wrapped was the first time my mother sat down and helped me read a longer Spanish book than that I was used to reading. The book was called Un Caso Grave De Rayas, by David Shannon. I remember I instantly fell in love with it. I would read it so often that my mother ended up replacing it with another copy because of how to deteriorate it wind up. 

A Camila Flan le encantaban las habas, pero nunca las comía porque todos sus amigos les detestaban y ella no quería ser diferente. A Camila le importaba mucho lo que la gente pudiera pensar de ella. 

The main character in Un Caso Grave De Rayas is Camila Flan. Camila loves lima beans, but never wanted to eat them. All her friends despised lima beans and she wanted to fit in. She was always concerned about what other people thought of her. Camila experiences what it is like to get an “ A Bad Case of the Stripes.” Camila’s illness is the result of not being herself. In Camila’s case, it is not following her desire to eat lima beans. After she turns all types of shapes and colors and older lady helps her by giving her lima beans and teaching her it does not matter what people think and Camila’s stripes disappear. 

I like to think that everyone has their version of a lima bean. In my case, my lima bean happens to be my love for reading. I have been blessed to grow up bilingual, even today Spanish plays an important role in my everyday life. Thanks to my mom’s patience and knowledge I was able to become an expert in Spanish. I have been fortunate enough to broaden my range of reading. I am able to enjoy both English and Spanish books.