Reviews

• クラシックな児童向き時代小説

  小学校高学年･中学生向きのスペイン画家とともに生きて行く黒人奴隷の話。大人の私でも結構おもしろく読みました! 登場人物の価値観を現代風に表す傾向があるとはいえ、歴史的な事実に基づいた話だけあって、面白いです。 Classic tale of a black slave in the household of a famous Spanish painter. The values ascribed to the main characters sometimes seem a little idealistic and anachronistic, but the story is based on the historic fact of the painter's emancipation of his inherited slave, and the story is an interesting exploration of the few known facts.

• Velasquez and Juan de Pareja : a story of friendship and respect

  This is the amazing story of great Spanish painter Velasquez slave Juan de Pareja who became a painter after the master freed him. I first read this book in its French translation. For once very beautifully translated. Then realized it had been originally written in English so I read it again. An unbelievable true story that brings us back to 17th century golden age of Spain. It is difficult to find but is well worth the search ! Enjoy

• Great book!

  I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. It was a really good story and well written. A must read for homeschooled teens.

• In the shadow of Velázquez

  This book was actually bought by me as a pendant to "Velázquez and the Surrender of Breda: The Making of a Masterpiece" by Anthony Bailey which mentions V.'s trip to Rome in 1650 to paint the portrait of Innocent X and his freeing of Juan de Pareja there..

• Would be a great School project book

  I, Juan... won the Newbery Medal in 1966. While I'm sure this isn't the only Historical Fiction Book to win the medal, it is the first that I have read. On to the review. What I liked: 1. Historical Fiction. The main characters in the story were real people. You can go online and read about Juan de Pareja and his master Diego Velazquez. You can google search their paintings and read about the king that they served and the Pope Innocent X that Velazquez painted. One of my favorite parts of reading this book was to pause for a moment, and go look up the people mentioned in the book and the places. This book would be a great book for a classroom study as it presents many projects to do in addition to the reading of the book. 2. Historical accuracy: Trevino did her homework in the casting the setting perfectly, as well as how she portrayed secondary characters, like the King of Spain and the Pope. I also appreciated her attention to detail in the lesser characters like the apprentices as well as the delivery gypsy(muleteer). 3. Death is portrayed as a way of life: There is a lot of death in this book, and the reason is their was a lot of death during this time. Sickness was feared and medicine was very basic. Trevino mentions barber surgeons which is another reference to historical accuracy, something interesting to look up independently. 4. Relationships: I loved how the relationships evolve between Juan and just about every other character in the book. 5. Lolis: Lolis is a slave girl that shows up towards the end of the book. She serves as a great character opposite Juan in that she seems to be a lot of things Juan isn't, things like opinionated, hot headed, etc... I immediately like her in the book. It's like She is Donald Duck and Juan is Mickey Mouse. Sure Juan is what the story is about(Mickey is the face of Disney), but we all love Donald What I didn't like: 1. The language used in the book will require a little knowledge of the time. While not entirely a bad thing, there are some words in the book that are innocent, but in todays culture might find offensive. 2. Juan seems to be perfect in this book. I mean he is portrayed as someone who never really makes a mistake and seems to handle adversity perfectly. While I appreciate his goodness, I can't help but wonder why the author didn't give us a little more description of his failings. I really enjoyed this book. I felt like it was the right length, and I was entertained from start to finish. Interesting note about the author, Elizabeth Borton De Trevino. She was an American Citizen, but she wrote this book in Mexico City where she lived with her husband. So while she was by the definition of the criteria for the medal a candidate, she may not have fit into the spirit of the medal being American children's literature. Also, Trevino wrote several Pollyanna books in her life, and wrote a series of books about her life as part of a wealthy family in Mexico

• A Great Book if You Can Get Over the Initial Premise

  The initial stumbling block with "I, Juan de Pareja" is that a slave and Spanish renaissance painter can have a warm and caring personal relationship. It is not an unreasonable to question whether a slave can ever have a good relationship with the person who owns him. But if you can cross this initial barrier, you will find "I, Juan de Pareja" to a good read. The book is well written and filled with rich period details. My nine year old daughter and I both enjoyed the book. The book works only if you can suspend a certain amount of disbelief.

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