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Fontenaille, Élise

At the Drop of a Cat

40 pp. | Enchanted Lion | January, 2023 | Trade ISBN 978-1-59270-382-1 $18.95
(2) K-3 Translated by Emilie Robert Wong. Illustrated by Violeta Lopíz. Fontenaille and Lópiz bring readers a deeply affectionate intergenerational story of a six-year-old child and Grandpa Luis. The child admires Luis, a talented gardener who fled war in Spain as a youth and never attended school or learned to read or write. "Dad told me Luis didn't have a chance to be a kid." The grandchild's first-person narration lovingly describes Luis's tattoo-covered arms, his artwork that covers the walls ("Dad says Luis is as good as Henri Rousseau"), his cooking, his guitar-playing, and the idiosyncratic way he speaks: "He says I am 'the apple of his pie,' which means he really likes me." Lópiz's beautifully composed, exquisitely controlled illustrations burst with color, capturing impressions and moments with graceful lines and evocative, layered patterns and textures. There is a particularity to the story and characters that makes this book most memorable and spellbinding.
Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

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