Postcards

In two charming tales from a Swedish author, Detective Gordon, a very wise toad and Chief of Police in the forest, must solve mysteries. In the first book, Detective Gordon helps a squirrel find his missing hoard of nuts. During his investigation, Gordon finds Buffy, a mouse who has no family or place to live. Thus, an assistant position is created for Buffy, who is willing and ready for sleuthing. In the second mystery, the entire forest is unhappy because of an unidentified bully, and it is up to Detective Gordon and Buffy to put an end to it, because in the forest, “It is permitted to be nice but forbidden to be nasty.”As Buffy becomes part of the Police family, she develops a true friendship with Detective Gordon. Both feel a strong sense of duty to keep the forest safe and happy. When Detective Gordon learns that Buffy cannot read, he teachers her. In turn, Buffy uses unusual strategies to uncover clues when Detective Gordon catches up on his sleep. Together, they make a strong team. Nilsson’s short chapters and clever, well-developed plots, Marshall’s crisp translation, and Spee’s soft paintings make these titles ideal for early readers ready for adventure and mystery.

Bettie Parsons Barger

Detective Gordon: The First Case; Detective Gordon: A Complicated Case

Ulf Nilsson

Illus. Gitte Spee
Trans. Julia Marshall
Wellington, New Zealand: Gecko Press, 2015. 93 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-927271-49-0; 978-1-776570-59-1
(Fiction; ages 6-8)

In the village of Palenque, very few people know how to read or write. When her older sister starts receiving what she thinks are love letters, however, a young girl decides it is time to learn to read so they can figure out together what the letters say. With the help of Mr. Velandia, the village’s gentle shopkeeper, who offers to teach her in exchange for helping him around the shop, the little girl learns to recognize the different letters and then some words, until she is able to read and write on her own. Using a piece of charcoal she borrows from the kitchen, she starts to teach other children as well. Vasco’s own experiences conducting literacy work shops with Afro-Colombian and other communities inspired this story. It is a tribute to all the women, mothers, and librarians that she met during her travels—who had often learned to read by themselves in order to teach their children and share with them the pleasure of reading. Palomino’s beautiful illustrations fi ll the page with thick colors and textures that evoke the vibrant culture and landscape from Colombia’s coastal regions and bring the story and the characters to life.

Andrés Montañés-Lleras

Letras al Cartoon (Charcoal Letters)

Irene Vasco

Illus. Juan Palomino
Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Juventud, 2015. 32 pp.
ISBN: 978-958-8846-33-0
(Picture book; ages 4+)

Paper House Effigy is a story about the traditional art of pasted-paper sculptures in Taiwan, told from a little boy’s perspective. His grandfather is a Taoist priest and a master of paper pasting. Through telling the boy’s memories of his grandfather, Liao introduces the meanings behind burning paper effigies for religious rituals and funerals to readers. The dialogue between the boy and his grandfather are informative and moving and convey the grandfather’s enthusiasm for passing down the wisdom of this important Chinese ritual practiced for over a thousand years. They also reveal the boy’s admiration and care for his grandfather. Wang’s illustrations show the grandfather tying bamboo and cutting and pasting colorful patterned paper on bamboo frameworks to create a wide range of paper effigies—such as a luxurious palace for Jade Emperor God, a fancy mansion for a dear friend who passed away, and a small palanquin for the soul of the deceased. The collage illustrations show the details in creating pasted-paper sculptures, and they capture the solemn atmosphere of burning paper effigies as offerings or gifts for...