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Martin De Porres: The Rose In The Desert (2012)

by Gary D. Schmidt(Favorite Author)

4.02 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0547612184 (ISBN13: 9780547612188)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Clarion Books

review 1: This historical fiction book depict the life of Martin de Porres's life is a great read. It starts from his birth and his mother pleading for the priest to baptize him. It was already predestined that he would not be anyone to be "remembered" because his mother was African and his father was a royal conqueror. The book talked of his environment in the barrios (neighborhood) and the struggles from living there. It talks about his father Don Juan de Porres taking Martin and his sister Juana back to Ecuador because he did not like their living conditions. As Martin grows up in his new environment with better resources because of his father, the story shows how he goes beyond what people think of him because of his ambition and talent nurturing of a lemon tree, wounded animals... more, and sick people. They told him he could never be a priest even though it was something he really wanted. Schmidt does a nice job of depicting everyone' doubt in Martin by constantly saying "they frowned at him" and characters using terms like "slave boy" towards Martin. It shows how he became a father that all the priests adored and called brother. It is a great book for discussion on poverty, limitations, and other necessary concepts but I wish the story would have introduced more of the "why's" in the story. Most of it is written and "this happened" and then "this happened" but it doesn't stop to analyze what happened.
review 2: Genre: historical fictionCopyright: 2012The story is talking about race and class in society. Martin was denied to be successful when he was just a baby because of his blood was not “pure”. Although his father was Spanish, his identity was still unrecognized by the society he lived. Thus, his was categorized to low class. However, we all can see that his effort and insistence changed people’s eyes and received respect from even royals. He proved that he was able to do things well as those “pure” people do or even better. It points out a concept is that no matter what kinds of races or classes, people’s ability are all the same. less

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