Paloma Valdivia

If I were a sheep, you would be a lamb.
If I were a bear, you would be a cub.
As a mother holds her toddler, they muse over the way their love would translate if they were different animals. But no matter how they change, they will always be “us.” This bilingual story is a timeless ode to the unshakable bond between parent and child.

This is such an interesting way to introduce similarities and differences to young children. This book does it without using race or gender and I think that is a great way to introduce this theme.

Translated from the original Spanish text, this quirky picture book compares and contrasts the lives of the people “up above” living in the northern hemisphere and the people “down below” living in the southern hemisphere. A bright palette of jewel tones color surreal right-side-up and upside-down images subdivided by a red line representing the equator. Unfortunately the quirky printed images complicate the issue and do nothing to clarify the text. The reader might still be show more thinking, “Huh? I don’t get it” by the time the account is done. World maps are presented in the end papers of the book, but a quick explanation of the Earth as a globe will help readers from Kindergarten through third grade “look at the world the other way around”. This story is more fun than educational; don’t expect the tale to underscore a lesson on geography with any clarity. show less

PreS-Gr 2—This bilingual picture book opens with a mother sitting in a chair with her child. It can be called a
Spanish Runaway Bunny, as it cements family bonds in reassuring language and specific, poetic art.