Mia's Story by Michael Foreman

Walker Books 2007
(Ages 5-7) The sketches Foreman did on his travels through Chile are incorporated into this story of hope amongst the waste outside the city of Santiago. Foreman met Manuel, who with his fellow villagers, harvested the wasteland near their village and recycled it for sale to the city where it came from. Far from being a story of despair, Foreman's illustrations and the story he tells makes it a story of the future.

One day Mia's father brings her a puppy which he found alone in the city. But one day, Poco disappears, and Mia climbs onto her horse and together they go into the mountains on their search. Here they discover a field of flowers, and Mia carefully takes a clump, roots and all, back to her home. Planting them, they multiply quickly until they have spread over the village. She puts some of the plants into pots and goes with her father to the city to sell them. Eventually she and her father just sell the flowers, as the business becomes so successful, and they eagerly await the time when they can build a house form brick.

Foreman has taken a simple tale and told it well, surrounding the story with illustrations redolent of the background of the country of Chile. The story of hope and looking forward will have wide appeal, especially adding to our readers' knowledge of how other children live.
Fran Knight