Arturo Martinez, a Hoboken resident for more than 30 years, wants readers to know that Pedrito’s World isn’t really a memoir – it just reads like one.
The young main character in Martinez’s children’s book represents several people and experiences in Martinez’s life as a boy growing up in South Texas.
Martinez, president of the Hoboken Public Library’s board of trustees, recently found out that he will soon receive an award from the Texas Institute of Letters for Best Children’s Book of 2007.
“I was just so honored,” says Martinez, a Texas native. “I was never expecting anything like this – and for a first book!”
For all ages
The tale centers around 6-year-old Pedrito, who grows up as a Mexican-American boy in South Texas at the onset of World War II.
Pedrito’s World (published by Texas Tech University Press) appeals to a variety of readers because his world is a lot like theirs. Racism, war, and social and economic strife are all mature themes that dominate the subject matter, examined through the eyes of an innocent.
“Kids as young as third graders and many senior citizens have liked the book, so it’s not confined to a middle school age group,” Martinez says.
College students and professors alike have taken an interest.
Martinez spoke this past winter at New Jersey City University, where he drew a crowd of about 50 people during the worst weather of the year. At the Southwest Texas Museum, he drew 70 people for his lecture on a Sunday when the New York Giants were in Texas playing the Dallas Cowboys.
Martinez has been approached by college students who were touched by the connection they felt to Pedrito’s story through their own family histories.
Professors have even approached him about using the book in their curriculum.
“A couple of college professors have wondered if the book would be available in Spanish, because they think it would be great for their Spanish courses,” he says, adding that he intends to speak to his publisher about the possibility.
Martinez’s 27-year-old son, Peter, thinks that Pedrito’s world touches everyone.
“I really feel like many of the stories in the book are timeless,” says Peter, who lives in Jersey City. “I feel like it’s great for people of all ages.”
War is over
Martinez’s first book has been so well received that he’s writing a sequel.
“For [Pedrito’s World], the kid is 6 years old, it’s 1941, the beginning of World War II. For the sequel, he’s 10 years old – I’ve written most of it already – and it’s the end of World War II.”
Like the first, Pedrito’s second book will be based on stories Martinez told his children, Nora and Peter, when they were growing up in Hoboken.
Pedrito’s evolving world will include President Roosevelt’s death and Truman’s ascension, the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan, soldiers coming back, the founding of the United Nations, the end of meat and sugar rations, and victory gardens.
Throughout his book tour, Martinez has stressed the importance of reading to students from third grade through college.
He encourages his audiences to write their own books, even though they might not be published, saying that even keeping a notebook of stories and memories could have historical value.
“We have the same problems today, the same economic problems, discrimination, war – 70 years later,” he said. “I think this is why the book is successful, because the problems we were talking about then are still here today.”
And today, Pedrito’s World continues to receive accolades for its relevance and appeal. The Western Writers Association recently named it as a finalist for Best Young People’s Book of Year.
Martinez will discuss and autograph copies of “Pedrito’s World” at St. Francis Church’s Parish Center, 310 Jefferson St., Hoboken, on March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Comments can be sent to Mpaul@hudsonreporter.com.