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PICTURE BOOKS
Menezes, Sueli

One Boy's Choice

32 pp. | Minedition | September, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-988-8342-01-3 $17.99
(2) K-3 Translated by Kathryn Bishop. Illustrated by Annika Siems. On the title page, a boy boasts to his friends that he is going fishing with his grandad: "We'll catch a big fish, and I'll pull it out of the water all by myself!" The friends are unimpressed and laugh at him ("as usual"). Nevertheless, grandfather and grandson set off in their canoe, paddling through giant water lily pads, and begin fishing. Siems's painterly illustrations fill each spread, showing the scenes underwater and in the boat, using muted browns, blues, greens, and grays. One especially effective spread provides an overhead view of the lily pads and the boy's finger creating concentric circles in the water, capturing the luminous natural beauty. When they finally net a big fish, Grandad shows the boy the babies inside the creature's mouth, ­explaining that it's a father fish who will carry them for a month. He offers the child a choice--taking the fish to show to his friends, or allowing it to live with its children in peace. The understated story allows readers to see a community living close to the natural world (although the setting is unspecified in the text, the back-cover copy describes "a little boy of the Amazon"), and they will appreciate a tale in which a young person has an important decision to make.
Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

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