About the Author
Image credit: NBC News
Series
Works by Edel Rodriguez
Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx / La juez que crecio en el Bronx (Spanish and English Edition) (2009) — Illustrator — 618 copies, 24 reviews
Two Worlds (Dos mundos): A First Picture Book of English and Spanish Words (English and Spanish Edition) (2025) 4 copies
The Crabapple Tree 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1971
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Pratt Institute (BA, Painting)
Hunter College (MA) - Short biography
- [from Sergio Saves the Game! dust jacket]
Edel Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba. He left for America on a boat with his parents and sister when he was eight years old. After they arrived, Edel's extended family came to pick them up, and his cousin brought him the first black-and-white soccer ball he'd ever seen. In Cuba, he only played with plain ones!
Since then, Edel has grown up and illustrated five picture books, including the first Sergio book, Sergio Makes a Splash!, which he also wrote. His Web site is www.edelrodriguez.com. Sergio's Web site is www.sergiothepenguin.com. - Birthplace
- Havana, Cuba
- Associated Place (for map)
- Havana, Cuba
Members
Reviews
Edel’s graphic memoir recounts his childhood in rural Cuba during Fidel Castro’s rule until the family’s sudden harrowing escape to the U.S. during the Mariel boat lift. Like refugees and immigrants before and after, the Rodriguez family struggled to adjust and survive away from all they used to know. Edel went on to attend art school in New York City against his parents’ wishes; there he flourished and found success as an artist, including as a Time cover illustrator. During show more Trump’s campaign and presidency, Edel found troubling parallels between Trump’s commentary and Cuban propagandia under a Communist regime. Edel used his art to confront the danger he saw brewing. Revealing and harrowing. The illustrations provide the poetry to Edel's journalistic prose. show less
Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx / La juez que crecio en el Bronx (Spanish and English Edition) by Jonah Winter
This book was very well written and put together written as story-like biography for children. I especially liked how the author incorporated two languages into this book side by side. For every paragraph of English, next to it was another paragraph of the same text but in Spanish. Sometimes, in the English portion of the paragraphs, the author included words in Spanish, such as ‘abuela’ and ‘loteria’ to introduce different parts of Sonya’s culture. This definitely highlights the show more fact that Sonya encompasses two parts within herself: one that is Puerto Rican, and the other, American. With the Spanish text, I think it’ll be helpful for readers to translate and match the words to English and get a better sense of the Spanish language itself. I also enjoyed the structure of how the illustrator organized the text around the pictures. Most books have the text above or below the picture, but this illustrator would put it around the drawings to accommodate for all the Spanish translations. It’s organized in a circular kind of way with the words in one corner, a picture to its right and bottom, and more text in between the pictures. This engages readers to observe and look at the sequence of the text that correspond to the text. Lastly, I admire how the character had developed throughout the story. The main character, Sonya, sets goals for herself when she was a child to become a judge after she was diagnosed with diabetes. Throughout the book, she faces obstacles that would have been factors to deter her away from pursuing her dreams. However, Sonya displayed a characteristic of triumph and determination to become the first Latin Supreme Court judge. The main idea of this book is to stay true to yourself and to your dreams; the beginning of the book opens with “You never know what can happen”, and in Sonya’s story, a little girl growing up in the projects of rural Puerto Rico could one day become one of the most influential judges of our times today. It is such an encouragement and eye opener to readers, and I would highly recommend this story to be part of the classroom collection. show less
An engaging memoir of Edel Rodriguez's childhood under Fidel Castro's dictatorship in Cuba and his parents' decision to risk everything by fleeing to the United States as part of the Mariel boatlift in 1980 when he was nine years old.
The closing chapters of the book pivot to Rodriguez's editorial cartooning and activism against the increasingly autocratic Donald Trump, a man who reminds him too much of Castro with all the scapegoating, hate-mongering, and big lies.
It's a bit wordy for a show more graphic novel, but Rodriguez's striking art easily offsets any overlarge blocks of text.
(Best of 2023 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto NPR's Books We Love 2023: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels and the Publishers Weekly 2023 Graphic Novel Critics Poll lists. This book made it onto both.) show less
The closing chapters of the book pivot to Rodriguez's editorial cartooning and activism against the increasingly autocratic Donald Trump, a man who reminds him too much of Castro with all the scapegoating, hate-mongering, and big lies.
It's a bit wordy for a show more graphic novel, but Rodriguez's striking art easily offsets any overlarge blocks of text.
(Best of 2023 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto NPR's Books We Love 2023: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels and the Publishers Weekly 2023 Graphic Novel Critics Poll lists. This book made it onto both.) show less
Meet Sergio, a curious-but-cautious Argentine penguin with a passion for soccer, fishies, and water. Most water anyway: He does not know how to swim and is reluctant to follow his mates into the ocean deep. Adorably donning various floaties, Sergio psyches himself into taking the plunge, only to discover that ocean swimming is FUN.
Sergio's story unfolds with gentle economy: the spare text is integrated in the illustrations, woodcuts in a gorgeous four-color palette. The overall effect is show more irresistible.
Plenty of opportunities for audience interaction: name the things Sergio loves most, the kinds of water he enjoys... shout encouragement for him to dive in... "Did you have fun?" his teacher asks. (Did Sergio have fun?) "YES!" show less
Sergio's story unfolds with gentle economy: the spare text is integrated in the illustrations, woodcuts in a gorgeous four-color palette. The overall effect is show more irresistible.
Plenty of opportunities for audience interaction: name the things Sergio loves most, the kinds of water he enjoys... shout encouragement for him to dive in... "Did you have fun?" his teacher asks. (Did Sergio have fun?) "YES!" show less
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 8
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 948
- Popularity
- #27,124
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 48
- ISBNs
- 26
- Languages
- 3