Monday, October 17, 2011

Waiting for the Biblioburro - Monica Brown, John Parra.

Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, illus. by John Parra
Ana loves to read and owns one book that she reads again and again. Ana and her family live in a small village without a local library. One day a man and his burros brings a library to the village. The children rush to meet the man and his two donkey's. When the librarian leaves Ana can't wait for him to return. The text and illustrations allow the reader to feel Ana's excitement.

"When will he come back?" she asks her mother, who smiles and says, "Go read, Ana."
"When will he come back?" she asks her mother, who smiles and says, "Go draw, Ana."
"When will he come back?" she asks her mother, who smiles and says, "Go write, Ana."

This story is a wonderful inspired by Luis Soriano Bohorquez, the librarian who started the Biblioburro Foundation. It depicts how much joy Bohorquez's traveling library gives to readers living in remote areas.

Waiting for the Biblioburro is textually and visually very beautiful. I am a huge fan of Brown's and it was pleasure to lose myself in another one of her stories. Parra's artistic style is a perfect fit for this tale. Like the text the illustrations are fun, playful and imaginative. I loved the dignified look on the faces of the burros, as if they know they have an important job.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book support Luis Soriano Bohorquez's Biblioburro program.

An excerpt

A starred Kirkus Review

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I so love the Biblioburro project! I recently watch (and blogged about) the PBS Biblioburro show and was amazed by the difficult work this man does to get books to people. We take so much for granted.

I'm looking forward to seeing you soon!