I AM LA CHIVA!

Climb aboard for a trip you won’t forget!

La Chiva, a bus that drives through the Andes, narrates this peppy tale. Painted with vibrant hues and patterns, this open-air bus rises early—“before Señor Sun”—and picks up farmers and their products, from Doña Ines and her arepas and huevos to Don Ernesto and his pig. La Chiva and the passengers sing as they roll past a verdant countryside. But soon La Chiva gets a flat tire and must pull over. Luckily, everyone works together to replace the tire with a spare—they are a community, after all. Once they reach the lively town square, the passengers disembark and sell their wares to grateful customers, while children play tag and hopscotch. Before the day is over, the group has a present for La Chiva (a replacement tire for the spare), but to La Chiva, the people themselves are the best gift. Alvarez Gómez makes superb use of color: the lush greens of the surrounding country, punctuated by pops of red, orange, and purple; rich earth tones for the buildings in the square; and, of course, La Chiva, a veritable rainbow. Interspersed with Spanish, the rhyming verse bounces along as energetically as the titular bus. In the backmatter, Hernández explains that La Chiva buses are common to rural Colombia and notes that the story is rooted in her own childhood memories.

A delightful journey; readers will be eager for repeat trips.