Los vestidos de mamá

November 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 2-Carretero's gentle narrative is one of the loveliest offerings to come out of Spain recently and demonstrates how an international title, rather than being culturally specific, can have universal appeal. The imagination of a young, unnamed girl is inspired and nurtured by her mother's many dresses. A blue dress takes the girl into an ocean filled with mermaids. A striped dress becomes a musical staff, with the girl literally hanging from a note, joyfully singing. Most poignant, when her mother wears a black dress because she is sad, the girl picks up a flashlight, lighting the darkness and hugging her mother in silence. Each spread shows the mother on the left, with her dress billowing out into the girl's imagination on the right. The mother's green floral dress becomes a grassy hill covered with flowers. A dress with squares becomes paper on which the girl writes her favorite words. The pattern is broken only on the very last spread. The girl and her mom are shown together for the first and only time, snuggled up on a crescent moon, covered in a dress that, decorated with blue stars, has become a blanket. Carretero's Spanish text reads like poetry; readers can almost feel her luxuriating over each word. The book includes paper doll cutouts and coloring sheets at the end. These would make terrific storytime craft activities when reading this work. VERDICT A tender, imaginative tale of love between a mother and daughter, lovingly written, designed, and illustrated.-Tim Wadham, Children's Literature Consultant, Puyallup, WA

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