Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt De La Peña (review)

It's Carmela's birthday, and much as she loves her shiny, jingly new bracelets, what she really loves is being old enough to join her brother on the trip through town to the laundromat. Along the way and amid some sibling bickering, she finds a dandelion puffball, and she hangs onto it gamely throughout the laundry process as she contemplates what wish to make on it. When she takes a tumble and, much to her dismay, flattens the flower, it's her erstwhile bossy brother who gives her back her wish. This is a sweet story of the ups and downs of the brother-sister dynamics, given richness by the details that tell the larger story of Carmela's life, with a father gone from home until he can get his "papers fixed" and a mother working in hotel housekeeping to make the soft beds that she'll never get to sleep in. The illustrations combine acrylic paint with crisp collage and digital touches in a landscape of complex colors dominated by earth tones; the papel picado decorating Carmela's birthday celebration recurs as a visual motif, its stylized scenes contrasting with the homey and individual detail of the neighborhood. An outing with an older sibling is always an adventure, and youngsters may even be inspired to follow Carmela's lead on some sib rapprochement. DS