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Title details for Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez - Available

Before We Were Free

by Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship.
Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind.
From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl’s struggle to be free.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    July 13, 2004

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739344712
      • File size: 154060 KB
      • Duration: 05:20:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 5.6
    • Lexile® Measure: 890
    • Interest Level: 4-8(MG)
    • Text Difficulty: 4-5

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Twelve-year-old Anita is growing up in the Dominican Republic. It is a bounteous tropical paradise replete with a loving extended family and many friends. Yet, as Anita tells her diary, she is increasingly aware of her world's dangers for adults who disagree with the island's dictatorial leader. When her own family escapes to safety in New York, the situation of those left behind becomes even more perilous. Julia Alvarez offers an informative, personal introduction at the beginning of the audiobook, and goes on to do a fine job narrating her own fact-based young adult novel, which is an involving book for adults as well as young adults. She doesn't try to create many different voices but does make the men sound different from the women and the old different from the young. She reads with emotion and clarity, and her warm Latin accent is a pleasure to listen to. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 26, 2004
      In what PW
      called "pitch-perfect narration," in a starred review, a 12-year old girl living in the Dominican Republic in 1960 relates the terrors of her country's regime and the attempt to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship. Ages 12-up.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 22, 2002
      In her first YA novel, Alvarez (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents) proves as gifted at writing for adolescents as she is for adults. Here she brings her warmth, sensitivity and eye for detail to a volatile setting—the Dominican Republic of her childhood, during the 1960–1961 attempt to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship. The story opens as 12-year-old narrator Anita watches her cousins, the García girls, abruptly leave for the U.S. with their parents; Anita's own immediate family are now the only ones occupying the extended family's compound. Alvarez relays the terrors of the Trujillo regime in a muted but unmistakable tone; for a while, Anita's parents protect her (and, by extension, readers), both from the ruler's criminal and even murderous ways and also from knowledge of their involvement in the planned coup d'état. The perspective remains securely Anita's, and Alvarez's pitch-perfect narration will immerse readers in Anita's world. Her crush on the American boy next door is at first as important as knowing that the maid is almost certainly working for the secret police and spying on them; later, as Anita understands the implications of the adult remarks she overhears, her voice becomes anxious and the tension mounts. When the revolution fails, Anita's father and uncle are immediately arrested, and she and her mother go underground, living in secret in their friends' bedroom closet—a sequence the author renders with palpable suspense. Alvarez conveys the hopeful ending with as much passion as suffuses the tragedies that precede it. A stirring work of art. Ages 12-up.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5.6
  • Lexile® Measure:890
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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