Dreamers
by Yuyi Morales
Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2018. 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written July 6, 2018, from an advance F & G.
2019 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Winner
2018 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#1 General Picture Books
Oh, this is such a gorgeous and timely book.
Mixing English and Spanish (without a glossary), Yuyi Morales tells her immigration story with glorious paintings and collages loaded with symbolism. A note at the back fills in the details.
She came to America with her baby, to get married. She felt bewildered and an outsider. She didn’t understand the language.
But almost the very center spread of the book is the place that changed both her and her child’s lives – the public library.
We see specific books on the shelves, but also wonders pouring out of the books she opens. All the rest of the spreads are about libraries and the wonders of books.
Thousands and thousands of steps
we took around this land,
until the day we found . . .a place we had
never seen before.
Suspicious.
Improbable.Unbelievable.
Surprising.Unimaginable.
Where we didn’t need to speak,
we only needed to trust.
And we did!Books became our language.
Books became our home.
Books became our lives.We learned to read,
to speak,
to write,
and
to make
our voices heard.
The text alone doesn’t do this book justice. The joy of the mother and child as the world and imagination opens up is glorious to behold.
In the note, where she fills in details of her story, she explains that her child was not a Dreamer in the political way the word is used today, about undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
Kelly and I were Dreamers in the sense that all immigrants, regardless of our status, are Dreamers: we enter a new country carried by hopes and dreams, and carrying our own special gifts, to build a better future. Dreamers and Dreamers of the world, migrantes soñadores.
Now I have told you my story. What’s yours?
She includes a list of books that inspired her at the back.
Oh, such a lovely book! And it doesn’t hurt that it’s a song of thanks to libraries.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/dreamers.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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