By Johanna McCalmont

To round off our kid lit jaunt to Latin America, we take a whirlwind tour through time, space, and language! We first head to Mexico, where we experience the highs and lows of being part of a close-knit family. Next, we head to El Salvador to learn about the Nahuat language and people. And finally, we end our tour in the ancient world of the Aztecs.

The Muéganos

The Muéganos are a family who stick together, just like the Mexican candy with the same name. They do absolutely everything together and Julia wouldn’t have it any other way. Until one day they visit the museum, and she realises she really wants to go the opposite direction and see different things (and maybe see things differently, too). Something cracks … Mamá tries to fix it, Papá tries to be more careful, but sometimes certain things just have to happen.

Mexican illustrator and author Jacque Jours’s pencil and watercolour illustrations create a unique world inspired by her own family, drawing readers into the highs and lows of what it’s like to grow up in a close-knit family while also figuring out how to go your own way. With a captivating range of palettes and a variety of detail across the spreadsfrom cheerful reds, greens and pinks in joyful scenes, to darker blacks and greys as change comes, to the—traditional blue and white designs of Mexican pottery that shatters yet remain beautiful in its own way—Jours varies the atmosphere and emotion, allowing readers time to pause and reflect.

A story for little ones and their grown-ups learning how to be together and one day apart.

My First Words in Nahuat

In this trilingual poetry collection, poet Jorge Argueta pays tribute to his grandmother who taught him his first words in Nahuat, a language that was almost wiped out in the 1930s when the government of El Salvador massacred many of the people who spoke it.

Over the course of 20 short poems—accompanied by vibrant illustrations that often capture an element of the magically abstract—Argueta invites readers to explore daily life in the village of Witzapan, El Salvador. We hear his first words echoed in the water, the wind, the fire, the hills, the stars; see the clay of Mother Earth in the hills, roads, houses, rivers and people; discover the ceiba, guarumo amate and flame trees; swim with the leaping trout beside the waterfall; taste the tortillas, ticucos, tayuyos and pizquez; and watch the fireflies light up the night.

The Nahuat, Spanish and English texts are presented side by side, allowing readers to compare and read each version of the poem easily. A glossary is provided at the end with descriptions of the specifically local types of trees, food and activities that are left ‘untranslated’ in the English and Spanish.

This is a book that celebrates the survival of a people and a language. It does so not by telling a violent history, but rather by bringing the seemingly ‘ordinary’ to life through the eyes of a child along with the memories of a poet dearly loved by his grandmother.

A-Ztec – A bilingual alphabet book

Bursting with vibrant colours, this bilingual picture book written and illustrated by awarding-winning Mexican artist Emmanuel Valtierra is definitely an eye-catcher. Each double page spread presents a different letter of the alphabet, introducing us to the ancient world of the Aztecs: their food, their gods, their festivals and their daily life. The short 4-line rhyming texts in English and Spanish mirror each other on opposite pages, offering information that both similar and distinct. Readers of both languages will no doubt enjoy comparing the two versions, while learners of Spanish can discover new words and rhymes.

The illustrations are full of details that will absorb readers time and again. In the backmatter, Valtierra explains that he has not only included words from several Mesoamerican cultures to fill in ‘gaps’ in the alphabet of the Nahuatl language used by the Aztec Empire, but also incorporated lots of tiny glyphs. The final spread is therefore a glossary of glyphs that the Aztecs used to communicate words and ideas that are both familiar, like avocado, chocolate or jaguar, and less familiar, like Xochitl, Tezcatlipoca or Ollin.

A-Ztec is like no other alphabet book I have ever seen. The stunning artwork inspired by Aztec codices combined with the short poems create a universe that can be explored at different levels again and again. Perfect for curious readers who love hunting for hidden gems!

About Johanna McCalmont

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