(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Originally conceived for a project produced by the Palestinian Museum and inspired by the traditional embroidery of Palestinian culture, this Argentinian import honors unseen worlds. The mixed-media art relies primarily on highly textured and detailed embroidery to tell the tale of a girl whose mother scolds her for losing things, such as her keys. Leilah, like her grandmother, is sensitive to the dreamlike existence of the "Other Side and its mysterious inhabitants." Isol depicts this as a world embroidered in red thread, and superimposed upon it in blue threads are the creatures that live there; delightfully, she also depicts the back sides of these embroidered cloths to emphasize the "much stranger" other world "just behind ours." She renders the startling, eye-catching forest with black threads, for example. Leilah knows that the holes that lead to the Other Side, including one in the forest, are responsible for her lost items, so she sews up the holes with a needle and thread -- which leads to unexpected consequences. Isol tells the story in four parts and an epilogue, the last introducing the otherworldly Lexis and Rolf, who find a surprising use for the lost keys. A richly imagined tale told with loving care.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by Gabriela Lyon. Originally published in Chile, this picture book begins with a quick chart comparing meters to miles (nine kilometers equals 5.59 miles), then the main text begins. A child wearing boots, jeans, and a backpack starts a long early-morning trek: "It's still dark when I leave home." The first-person narration describes counting steps (fifteen thousand on this walk), butterflies, and lizards in order to pass the time. Most of the story is revealed in the atmospheric acrylic paintings; for example, we see the child use a forked stick to raise the bottom of a barbed-wire fence and crawl through. The illustrations vary the point of view, so sometimes we are watching the protagonist, and other times we have a bird's-eye view that demonstrates how small the child is and what a long way there is to go. One particularly effective picture shows the character crossing a cow ­pasture, looking tiny in the expanse with the bigger animals. The matter-of-fact tone is echoed in the ­closing pages, which give information on the distances children in various parts of the world might travel to school--revealed at the end to be our narrator's destination--using specific examples. Additional information about the birds seen in the pictures is appended. The protagonist's path is shown on the endpapers, perhaps encouraging readers to compare their own routes to school.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by Juan Palomino. A young teacher (unnamed in the text) sets off to her remote school assignment in the Amazon armed with determination and a precious box of books. Her students warn her of the coming "great serpent" and run out of class one day; she grudgingly follows them but thinks they need to learn that legends aren't real. When she watches the serpent of mud caused by heavy rains and a rising river sweep away the school and her books, she begins to understand why she should have taken the students seriously. Adults share with the teacher their practice of embroidering images of legends and creating cloth books, which allows them to replenish the school library and inspires the teacher to create new lessons and learn the community's indigenous language. Straightforward prose and intentionally vague characterization present the story as a fable with encouraging lessons about the importance of cultural exchange and the power of nature. Intricate, digitally rendered spreads in shades of teal, orange, and green are filled with images that blend the natural and the legendary.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by Juan Palomino. An unnamed narrator relates how she learned to read as a child in her coastal Afro-Colombian pueblo. In Palenque: "Letters were in kitchens, on tables, and right in front of everyone's noses, but nobody read them," except for Señor Velandia, owner of the only shop in town, depicted stoically reading a newspaper. Along with the weekly boat delivery of provisions for the town arrive love letters addressed to the narrator's older sister, Gina, from a long-distance admirer. Spurred by her curiosity about the letters' contents, the narrator entreats Señor Velandia to teach her to read in exchange for help in his shop. Slowly but determinedly, using the names of relatives and customers, she learns the letters of the alphabet and passes on the gift of literacy to others--an endeavor she continues into adulthood--by drawing letters with charcoal on the ground. Letters are ubiquitous in Palomino's earth-tone digital illustrations, from newsprint to a "Welcome to Palenque" sign along the riverbank to the colorful embroidery on Gina's holiday dress. The historical context underscoring the narrative and the significance of the setting--Palenque is a village founded by people who escaped enslavement--is explained in Vasco's author's note and reinforces this quietly empowering ode to literacy.

Reviewer: Jessica Agudelo | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. A typical day on the savanna inspires Kibo, a rhinoceros, to write a book. "He wrote about the red sky of the savanna, the silhouettes of the birds, the buzz of the bugs." Naki the crane reads over Kibo's shoulder and is so moved that she sews up his pages between yellow covers and then flies the bound copy over the sea and drops it in a faraway city. The book then travels from a lion to a rabbit to a hen, ultimately winding up with Nanuk, a North Pole polar bear. ­Johnson's folk-art style, in warm shades of blue, yellow, and orange, gives the illustrations a retro vibe that suits the DIY ethos of Kibo's creation and the way it moves through the world. The flora and fauna that surround Kibo when he's writing recur whenever his story finds a new reader, giving a visual sense of how books allow thoughts and ideas to travel from one mind to another. Satisfying in itself, this book will also find a happy home in classrooms and serve as a springboard for young bookmakers' creative endeavors.

Reviewer: Adrienne L. Pettinelli | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(1) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by Raquel Catalina. On a playing field in a city neighborhood's central square, young Madani, a recent arrival, is the best player on his soccer team. He plays barefoot, and his teammates speculate how much better, even, he would play if he had proper cleats. They know Madani is saving up little by little (skipping afternoon snacks, walking instead of taking the bus) and await the day he can afford to buy cleats--hopefully before the upcoming match with their longtime rivals. Meanwhile, his mother sews all day in their apartment, listening to the faint cheers for Madani that waft through her window. The story is narrated by one of Madani's teammates and reflects childlike concerns and perspectives. So the focus stays on the wonder of Madani's skills rather than where he came from; and also, crucially, on the anticipated new cleats rather than what Madani is actually saving up for, which will likely come as a surprise to young readers. The illustrations in this Spanish import, in pencil, gouache, and colored pencil, capture a bustling neighborhood of sidewalk cafes, newsstands, fountains, passersby, traffic, and pigeons. The spreads showing soccer action are full of movement and energy as Madani juggles the ball, dodges opponents, shoots, and scores. A beautiful book centering on the beautiful game, but about so much more: immigrant life, family, friendship, love.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) 4-6 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by María Elena Valdez. During General Pinochet's dictatorship, thousands of Chilean citizens were "disappeared," including thirty-four children. Ferrada's (Mexique: A Refugee Story from the Spanish Civil War, rev. 1/21) thirty-four poems are titled with each of the children's names and are musings on how they might have seen the world. "Macarena," for example, named for a girl killed at age six, reads: "Three birthday wishes: / to make it summer all year long / to find the star that sleeps in the middle of apples / and to discover a secret anthill." The poems are rich with the sensory details of ordinary life, describing ants collecting crumbs, the faint sound of bubbles popping, the reflection of the moon in a glass of water. Watercolor, graphite, pastel, charcoal, and colored-pencil illustrations accompany the poems, and the visual images are as tender and imaginative as the verse. Concentric circles--puddles of soft blues, golds, and greens--fill a double-page spread to accompany the poem about Soledad, a child who loves the sound rain makes on the roof. In another illustration, a bear, adorned with a stunning coat of spring flowers and birds, represents spring. Without the title and accompanying author's notes, the vignettes would have little specificity to the horrors in Chile. They are, instead, reminders of the value of every child and leave the reader with a sense of loss for what might have been, had each of these children, and all children killed in political violence, survived. The book closes with a complete list of the young people's names and ages when they were disappeared--following which a final poem, "Pablo," honors a boy who in 2013 was found alive.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by Miren Asiain Lora. "How did the oysters get up to the top of a mountain?" Nogués combines a geologist's eye, a teacher's cadence, and his own joy and wonder about the world to organize explanations of geologic time, fossil formation, stratigraphy, and mountain building into a puzzle to be solved. The superbly creative text takes the form of an interchange between narrator and learner, starting with a perceived anomaly--sea creatures at the highest point on land--and then moving through a series of questions, eliminating incorrect alternatives and reveling in eureka moments, to arrive at the logical conclusions formed by centuries of scientific thought. Readers immerse themselves in the "language of rocks," asked directly by Nogués (in ­­­first- and second-person narration) to observe objects within the gorgeous and varied sea-toned illustrations by Asiain Lora (Hello, Earth!, rev. 7/21); and they can use the child and adult figures present in all of the main illustrations to imagine themselves as geologists in the field. Sidebars throughout provide additional information about the scientific principles and discoveries, and a glossary is appended.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. In this economical, poignant picture book, a girl tells her mother about a passageway in their yard that leads to a place on "the other side" where there is "no danger" and "nothing, nothing at all, can happen to you." The illustrations tell more--in this place, the girl gets a ride on the shoulders of a large man (possibly her father) who makes her feel safe. The child explains that the passageway is not always there, and her mother replies with the comforting words: "Although we may not always see it, we can always go looking for it." The text's few words are accompanied by beautiful, equally spare illustrations. Wernicke uses color (especially red, associated with love) and shape to add layers of meaning. Mother and child, comfortably curved shapes from gray and black acrylic paint, are surrounded by white space. Large expanses of red--sheets hanging on a clothesline--create the possible entry into the child's safe world where the man, wearing a red coat, stands out against the otherwise gray-and-white scene. As the mother comforts her child with hope, it is the mother who is now wearing red, symbolizing the family's connection and never-ending love. First published in Argentina, Wernicke's emotive picture book expresses a child’s strong feelings about longing and safety.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(3) 1-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Illustrated by Luciano Lozano. Mister H, a hippopotamus, convinces a young zoo visitor to set him free so he can find his home. Mister H then embarks on a series of adventures around town. Lozano's stylish illustrations lend a mid-century vibe to Nesquens's offbeat story. The Spanish import will appeal to confident chapter-book readers.

Reviewer: Aimee Chevrette Bear