BIBLIOBURRO

In 2000, Luis Soriana, a true book lover, started sharing his books with adults and children in remote mountain towns in northern Colombia. Winter’s account of his story targets young children and joins several other recent books about traveling libraries around the world. The author’s cheery acrylics present the flora and fauna of the tropical forest in bright colors and naïve style. Luis and his burros, appropriately named Alfa and Beto, make up the staff of Biblioburro (The Burro Library) with some help from Diana, Luis’s wife, who wants all the books out of her little house. There are problems: Sometime the burros don’t want to keep walking; a bandit (a cartoonlike figure) attacks but takes a book instead of money. The children, however, are entranced by not only the books but also Luis’s stories. One day, he even brings pig masks as he tells the story of “The Three Little Pigs,” and the surprise for readers is in the sketched-in pictorial speech balloons that tell the story without even mentioning its title. Sweet and uplifting. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)