In this story, author Rigoberto González confronts the social reality faced by many families in the United States: Parents must work long hours to support their families, and not every child has the option of receiving after-school care. González's insights come from his own experiences growing up as a latchkey kid, and, later on, teaching in an after-school program to children in a primarily Puerto Rican and Dominican community in New York. He has set the story in that community.

As students read Soledad Sigh-Sighs / Soledad Suspiros and are introduced to a neighborhood in which immigrants from many different places live together, they will gain an appreciation for the rich cultural diversity of New York City. They will examine the issue of loneliness, and discover the importance of creativity and imagination. The story provides an opportunity for students to examine the makeup of their own community and to reflect upon their own lives and after-school experiences.

U.S. Puerto Rican

Community:
interdependence; community members and their roles; friendship; cultural diversity

Sense of Self:
loneliness; resilience; self-reliance; independence

Imagination:
creativity; imaginary friends; problem-solving

	The son and grandson of migrant farm workers, Rigoberto González was born in Bakersfield, California, and spent much of his childhood in Michoacán, México, frequently traveling back into California. Educated at the University of California at Riverside and at Davis, and at Arizona State University, González received a University Award from the Academy of American Poets and four Pushcart Prize nominations. His first collection of poetry, So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water Until It Breaks (University of Illinois Press), was selected by the poet Ai as one of the five volumes published in the 1998 National Poetry Series. His second collection, Other Fugitives and Other Strangers, was a finalist for the 1999 Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. Most recently he received the John Guyon Prize for Literary Nonfiction from The Crab Orchard Review and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing. Works by González have also recently been published in Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, Colorado Review, Chelsea, and ZYZZYVA. Other publications include two poetry chapbooks and a forthcoming memoir from the University of Oklahoma Press. Soledad Sigh-Sighs / Soledad Suspiros is González's first book for children. He was inspired to write the story during the two years he worked as a writing teacher for the Arts & Literacy After-School Program, a part of the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. For two years, the children in this primarily Puerto Rican and Dominican community inspired González with their stories, poems, and drawings. With them, he confronted the reality of parents who are unable to spend as much time with their children as they might like. He notes that there are not enough spaces in after-school programs for the children who need them. A former latchkey kid himself, he thinks of the book as a small gift for the children who discover their own creativity and imagination. Rigoberto González currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is a visiting professor at The New School.
	Rosa Ibarra is a painter whose work is exhibited and collected internationally. She was born in Puerto Rico and raised there and in Paris, France. She studied painting at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she graduated with honors. She went on to apprentice in Paris with her father, the painter Alfonso Arana. Soledad Sigh-Sighs / Soledad Suspiros is the first book she has illustrated. Ibarra's work is largely figurative, often focusing on images of women in a variety of media. Soledad Sigh-Sighs / Soledad Suspiros initially interested her because of the relationships among its characters. To get ideas about the settings in the story, Ibarra photographed friends who live in the barrio in Brooklyn, New York City. One friend's home in particular captured her attention. She writes: "When I first visited it, I said, 'This is it!' The apartment was filled with love and color." The grandchildren in that household eventually became models for the characters in Soledad Sigh-Sighs / Soledad Suspiros. Rosa Ibarra lives and paints in Northampton, Massachusetts, with her four children, Klara, Nina, Kristina, and Gabriel.