(2) K-3 Illustrated by Claire Keane. This story spans decades, introducing two artists separately until Nancy Schön (born 1928) begins work on her sculptures of Robert McCloskey's (1914–2003) beloved duckling characters for Boston's Public Garden. Kunkel (­Digging for Words, rev. 1/21) dips into and out of each creator's story line smoothly and effectively, advancing the narrative to get to the heart of the book: how an illustrator's drawings were re-envisioned by a sculptor as three-dimensional public art. Keane's digital illustrations on sepia-tinted backgrounds have an appropriately vintage look; her loose lines and energetic compositions are a good match for the conversational (and lengthy) text. After some brief background about each artist's early years, three double-page spreads neatly outline McCloskey's path to the publication of Make Way for Ducklings in 1941. Schön's artistic career is more circuitous (raising a family is her priority), and she receives less recognition; once she conceives of the duckling project, Kunkel focuses on the sculptor's meticulous process, along with the added pressure of interpreting a living artist's iconic characters. Scenes of meetings between McCloskey and Schön reveal how the two navigated a potentially tricky collaboration. An author's note and timeline provide more detail about the subjects and the sculptures. For more on McCloskey and the creation of his Caldecott Medal–winning book, read Smith's Mr. McCloskey's Marvelous Mallards (rev. 11/22).

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Paola Escobar. Kunkel and Escobar (illustrator of Planting Stories, rev. 1/19) present the lives of "two Josés." One is a child, known as Little José, living in La Nueva Gloria barrio in Colombia; the other is his neighbor, Señor José, the real-life José Alberto Gutiérrez, whose love of literacy inspired him to construct a community library at the turn of the twenty-first century. While the city of Bogotá sleeps, Señor José, a trash collector, uses his route to look for "hidden treasure...books!" Kunkel's implied metaphor--one person's trash is another's treasure--neatly structures this picture-book biography. Señor José rescues discarded books, and Little José can't wait to read them on Saturdays when the doors to "Paradise" (i.e., Gutiérrez's community library) open wide. Escobar's spacious digital illustrations alternate single pages (including characters' side-by-side perspectives), spot images, and double-page spreads, whose muted cool blue tones and predominant vertical lines offer sweeping panoramic scapes of Bogotá's streets and silhouetted mountains. Some of the images reflect readers' imaginary worlds (references to One Hundred Years of Solitude, Anna Karenina, and The Little Prince), capturing the unique experience that literature offers the mind. An author's note, "Featured Books," and websites are appended.

Reviewer: Lettycia Terrones | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021