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PICTURE BOOKS
Solis, Nicholas

My Town / Mi pueblo

32 pp. | Penguin/Paulsen | August, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-0-593-10991-5 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-593-10992-2 $10.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Luisa Uribe. This enjoyable bilingual picture book highlights cousins on each side of the U.S./Mexico border. English text narrates the U.S. (girl) cousin's point of view, and Spanish text narrates the Mexican (boy) cousin's. Rather than being a direct translation, the words are unique to each character; although the cousins are relating the same basic information, their stories are refreshingly authentic-sounding on their own. The text is simple enough for young bilingual readers or for anyone learning either Spanish or English, making this a great family, classroom, or library read-aloud. Uribe's illustrations provide a depth of interest and busyness that allow viewers to fall into the pictures, looking for differences and similarities between the Mexican and U.S. towns and families shown. Uribe provides a representative balance of all colors of people on both sides of the border and within each family. In fact, sometimes it's unclear which house/town/country pictured is which (although we see more white people on this book's U.S. side despite most actual U.S. border towns being sixty percent Hispanic/Latine). The book does address border crossings, mentioning long lines and showing security officers and barbed wire, which comes off as realistic without being heavy-handed.
Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

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