SUNDUST

Two siblings explore the quixotic wonders of the desert in Peña’s author-illustrator debut.

A speck of matter traverses the sky with a resounding “KRAKBOOM,” landing with a final “PLONK!” The kids—both cued Latine, one bespectacled and squat, the other tall, with a long black braid—set off to investigate. As they clamber over a rock wall, the desert stretches before them. Past their border city and its bulldozers and concrete, the protagonists “follow the trail of sundust, to where the sky has no walls and daydreams soar.” The sundust flitters, a luminescent streak of rich pinks and purples that intoxicatingly unwinds from page to page, touching the spiny ocotillo, a field of creosote bushes, and an uninhabited turtle’s shell. Peña’s splendid pencil-and-gouache artwork contrasts the earth-kissed browns and greens of the desert with all the nooks, crannies, and cracks that the sundust slips into, magnifying the natural beauty of the desert with “Sun’s tough love.” With an adventurous spirit, the children gaze upon the rocks that “remember everything from a time before,” cherish the desert heat that deepens their brown skin, and swim alongside the River Spirit. Suddenly, a colibrí (Spanish for hummingbird) soars over their heads, and the brave youth grab onto the bird—now huge—as they’re whisked away. Punctuated by the occasional speech bubble, the steady, elegiac collective narration underscores the ties between siblings and their love for their desert home.

A hypnotic joy.