Mirror

Mirror
by Jeannie Baker

In this practically wordless picture book, a day in the lives of two boys are compared side-by-side.  One is growing up in a city in Australia, the other in a village in Morocco.  They are shown doing chores, running errands with their fathers, helping to make dinner, and relaxing.  The book is meant to be “read” both left-to-right (as in English) and right-to-left (as in Arabic).  As you open the book, you see both worlds side-by-side and how similar they are, even though they are worlds apart.

It’s really hard to describe this book without being able to show it to you.  This author spotlight on Baker shows what one of the pages looks like when it’s open.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  As I was going through this book, I was simply in awe over the all of the details and the concept of this book.  Being wordless (except for the introduction, both in English and Arabic), kids who speak any language can discover these boys’ stories.  The art is incredible.  You will be blown away by this book.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Accidente celeste/Sky Blue Accident

Accidente celeste/Sky Blue Accident
by Jorge Luján and Piet Grobler

One day while riding his bike to school, the narrator collides with the sky.  He picks up some of the broken pieces and puts them in his pocket.  He shows his teacher and she grows wings and flies away.  With the sky broken, the clouds and the moon are all askew.  The kids repaint the sky to set things right, but there just isn’t enough paint.  Good thing the narrator saved some of the pieces!

I haven’t looked at too many bilingual children’s books.  I’m not sure how I feel about this one.  On my initial reading, I didn’t like it.  I thought it was too poetic with not enough story for a picture book to be enjoyed by younger kids, although the illustrations are very age-appropriate, seemingly done in crayon.  Apparently Luján is well-known in the Mexican children’s literature community.  I had no idea.  I also don’t know how I felt about this bilingual book, because I’ve seen them typically used in order to teach vocabulary or about another culture.  This one didn’t do either, so it really is more of an illustrated poem with a tiny little story in two languages.  I didn’t learn anything, nor was I inspired.  Nothing to rave about.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com