Cook hares, angry Aztec emperors, uplifting stories about pioneers of mobile libraries or a collection of great stories from fantastic literature are some of those that the winter harvest of children's and young people's literature brings us.
The herd
Margarita del Mazo.
Guridi's Illustrations
cloudeight.
40 pages.
€15.90 (Ages 4 and up)
You can buy it here.
Miguel knows well what the ritual is for the dream to come.
Lying in his bed, he turns off the light and summons his flock until his eyes close.
He enumerates sheep one by one but, what is his surprise, when one good night number four disappears from the map and interrupts the chain of jumps.
At first, being a sheep seemed easy.
It was enough to obey, walk around and help the others fall asleep.
But perhaps the problem arose because the four dared to think for herself or because she was stubborn and did not let herself be intimidated by the pressure of the group when they reminded her that Miguel's dream depended on her.
What to do then?
Resign yourself to insomnia?
Blackmail her?
Or send him a polite letter from her explaining her reasons?
Guridi's unmistakable illustrations portray the boredom of this rascally-eyed black sheep who goes on strike to the perplexity of the rest, as well as the little boy's original strategy to reverse the situation.
Nubeocho reissues this award-winning album that was released in 2016 and combines charm and humor for all readers who find it difficult to go to bed.
Montezuma's tantrum
Nuria Gomez.
Illustrations by Santiago Solis
Ekaré.
48 pages.
€8.90 (From 5 years old)
You can buy it here.
Monarch Moctezuma is in a bad mood today and refuses to smile, dictate codices or light the copal that rests on the altar of the Temple of the Sun. The entire court wonders what mosquito may have bitten him because neither the plume of a thousand feathers nor the dances or sacrifices manage to appease the anger of the protagonist.
Good thing someone has the happy idea of putting the
xocolátl
on the stove.
Silence hangs in the air and everyone holds their breath while Moctezuma takes the first sip of that little jicarita with the concoction "warm, well shaken and foamy."
Will the miracle happen then?
The eight syllables are linked in this fun rhyming story about the origins of chocolate that finds its best complement in the colorful illustrations of Aztec Mexico and its capricious emperor.
A small-format book, ideal for pre-readers to handle, which opens our eyes to other cultures and incorporates a final glossary with Nahuatl terms sprinkled throughout the story.
cloud bread
Heena Baek
Kokinos.
40 pages.
€16 (From 6 years old)
You can buy it here.
The day dawned rainy and the two kittens put on their raincoats to go outside.
Looking up at the sky they discovered a small cloud hooked on the branch of a tree, they rescued it and took it home very carefully so that it did not fly away.
As if it were cotton candy, her mother cooked delicious buns from that cloud that, when eaten, allowed them to fly.
As in previous titles, Heena Baek reintroduces this kind of magical realism into the narration within the most everyday scenes.
Thus, we will see the brothers float among the kitchen furniture and fly over the city with a small cache of rolls to take them to their father, who went to the office fasting and is stuck in the middle of a monumental traffic jam.
The celebrated South Korean author (who in 2020 was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial) remains faithful to her aesthetic of photographed models and, both in her game of textures and in the combination of static shots and scenes in full movement, is capable of recreating a minimalist story full of charm.
Mr. Lepron's soup
Giovanna Zoboli.
Illustrations by M. di Georgio
At a good pace.
48 pages.
€18 (From 6 years old)
You can buy it here.
Mr. Lepron has a passion for vegetables and is known for cooking a delicious soup every fall that is celebrated by all the forest dwellers.
Lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets and all sorts of roots are combined in perfect harmony and are spreading the popularity of this cooking hare throughout the region.
Both the text and the careful watercolor drawings show us the slowness and care with which Lepron prepares his recipe, as well as his desire to become a chef recognized throughout the world.
But be careful, because sometimes dreams come true, and the craft will have to go to an industrial manufacture of its prodigious broth that begins to squeak in the middle of that natural environment.
Now the Lepron soup cans overshadow Campbell herself, and yet our hero has lost the pleasure that fueled his first steps in the kitchen and the satisfaction of giving love through food.
A beautiful album that tells us about the happiness of simplicity, celebrates the delights of the plant world and warns us against the danger of mass consumption.
collectors treasures
Lucie Brunellière
Red Fox Books.
40 pages.
€15.90 (From 7 years old) You can buy it here.
Decorated plates, four-leaf clovers, colored marbles... Simple objects that take on a new dimension when brought together in a collection.
Each one of them reveals to us a curiosity, a constancy and a passion for a subject.
Some collections are serious and are kept in museums while others remain in the privacy of the home but, in both cases, they always tell us about the person who dared to collect those objects.
This original album brings together 15 collections in which we will discover the conchologist's love of collecting conches, clams and other mollusc shells as treasures that the ocean gives us or the desire of the lucanophile to collect kites, whose origins go back many centuries. , in a Chinese fishing village that knew how to take advantage of the force of the wind.
The philatelist, the bibliophile and many other categories are illustrated on each double page by colorful drawings and feed curiosity.
An opportunity to look calmly, enjoy the process and learn that each human being, like his passions, is unique.
A whole year
Bernardo P. Carvalho and Isabel Minhos
Fulgencio Pimentel.
176 pages.
€23 (From 9 years old)
You can buy it here.
Change is part of our existence and there is nothing like observing nature to check the changes that each season entails.
Hence the relevance of this almanac that structures the year around the seasons and reveals geographical curiosities, etymologies of some months as well as the benefits and possibilities that each season offers us.
With the winter solstice, the sun begins to rise, the days lengthen and the animals take refuge to save energy for spring.
During these months we can learn to identify clouds according to their shape and color or study the growth of a bulb.
Week by week the calendar reveals to us both the transformations of the landscape and those of the animal world and launches original proposals to the reader, such as appreciating the nightingale's song in spring, predicting the weather by the cabañuelas in August or collecting seeds during autumn .
This original calendar, which has the unmistakable graphic stamp of Isabel Minhos and Bernardo P. Carvalho, will awaken the naturalist in us.
An opportunity to learn about the cycles of life and the language with which nature speaks to us.
The gem is a bud
Amy Timberlake.
Artwork by Jon Klassen
flamboyant.
184 pages.
€18.90 (From 9 years old)
You can buy it here.
In the first installment of this series, we already discovered Badger's disgust when Mofeto bursts into his door and tells him that, thanks to the generosity of Aunt Lula, he will be his new roommate.
The orderly world of this petrologist who spends hours among geodes, quartzites and all sorts of minerals is blown up by the new habits of the chaotic skunk.
From the "I cook and you pick up" to breakfast based on charred peppers and potatoes that go flying like rockets.
However, hand in hand with him new hobbies and readings will also open up.
In the new title of Skunk and Badger, this couple so well matched despite their differences will have to cross the doors of the domestic, as the successful American author takes her characters to Endless Lake in search of a precious agate.
There they will have to unite to face the evil plans of a fisherman and the secrets and deceptions that come their way and hinder their mission.
A dynamic and fun novel that, beyond the adventures, tells us about the need to overcome prejudices and understand those who think differently.
librarians on horseback
Passamar shell
At the end of stories
40 pages.
€19 (From 9 years old)
You can buy it here.
"In a place and at a time when there was not only a shortage of letters, but also of bread and even roads, it would be the women who, along winding paths full of mud in spring and snow in winter, would be in charge of carrying the books wherever they were needed.
We are talking about the most disadvantaged areas of Kentucky after the crisis of 29 that left the American economy in the bones.
The men found work far from home thanks to a government plan while the women became "librarians on horseback", leaving their families several days a week and going from town to town with their saddlebags full of books.
They had to fight the initial distrust based on persuasion before many of those who were unaware of the benefits of reading.
Nan, Grace, Mary Ruth... were some of those anonymous women who from their silent work did one of the most important tasks for the reconstruction of their country.
Weaving networks between peoples and discovering the breath of the word.
Concha Pasamar tells and illustrates this beautiful story and takes us into the epic of a thousand librarians who, for nine years, brought the light of books to the most remote places in America.
writings from another world
Various Authors.
Illustrations by Federico Delicado
Kalandrka.
192 pages.
€18 (From 13 years old)
You can buy it here.
All literature drinks from its sources.
In this second book in the collection led by Daniel Hernández Chambers, seven writers make available to the reader seven stories in which they dialogue with and pay tribute to great names in fantastic literature: from Michael Ende to Diane Wayne or Tolkien himself.
Thus, we will be trapped by the trip of two friends to a parallel world inhabited by oniries, some strange creatures that live in the minds of humans, or we will suffer with the agonizing climb of an elderly writer up the family ladder, who sees how this familiar space wobbles under his feet.
From the story in which Stanislaw Len himself reveals his disbelief when a small avatar sneaks into his house to the delusions of a young World War I soldier after discovering a tremendous hole at his feet from which a beast with angry eyes sprouts .
A transcript of that first meeting between Tolkien and his dragon Smaug.
Stories full of nods to these masters of science fiction that show us how the irrational bursts into the midst of the plainest realities and is in perfect harmony with the symbolic illustrations by Federico Delicado.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
literature
poetry
rehearsal
novel