My Neighborhood
Every morning, Ms. Marta goes out to check that the world is how it should be: her friends sitting on a terrace playing cards, the beach where it always is, children playing in the playground.
With illustrations full of color and colorful characters, My Neighborhood, shows the reader the world through the eyes of elderly Ms. Marta and demonstrates the wonder of diversity that surrounds us throughout our lives. The poignant message is balanced with simple text and detail-rich, illustrations full of comical visual surprises. The artwork combines watercolors, and photo-transfer collage, for a fun medley of people and faces in the neighborhood--visiting the school, beach, hair salon, clinic, and more.
My Neighborhood is a celebration of community that highlights the beauty of its everyday rhythms and routines, as well as offering a heartwarming meditation on what it means to grow old when surrounded by loving friends and neighbors.
About the Publisher
Tapioca Stories, a New York-based publishing house with Latin American soul, introduces young English readers to the finest Latin American children's books, originally written in Spanish and Portuguese.Earn by promoting books
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"...for life lessons about the elderly, or to provide children with a glimpse of how others live. It's a slice-of-life journey through elderly Ms. Marta's daily routine. She leaves the house as her neighborhood friends are playing cards in the alley and passes by the local school and beach on the way to her 'appointments'...VERDICT This title will appeal far more to adults than to the general picture book audience of children. Potentially useful for open discussions in classroom settings about community, and what it means (in a general sense) to grow older "--School Library Journal
"Ms. Marta lives in a bustling neighborhood where everyone knows her well and looks forward to her cheerful daily greetings. Mixed media illustrations illuminate her world, with predominant bursts of blue and red among other hues; the pictures included faces trimmed from photographs, too. Each conveys a range of Ms. Marta's neighbors' personalities and the nuances of their busy lives. Adult audiences will also appreciate this story about the happy rhythms of growing old at home."--Foreword Review
"The more María José Ferrada we see on our shelves, the better... is a very different vibe, focusing on a single older woman during the course of a single day. We follow Ms. Marta. She lives on her own. She is older, and she is completely independent. From the photos on her wall we can tell that she's had a full life, but she isn't a grandmother or anything (and finding a picture book about a self-satisfied older woman who isn't a grandma is like finding a needle in a haystack sometimes). She has a tattoo. She has a framed photo of her friends playing cards. Really, the whole book is this marvelous mix of photos and illustration, all done at the hand of the talented Spanish artist Ana Penyas..." --Betsy Bird
"...a picture book about old women, perfect for both young and older readers... the neighborhood is full of predictably helpful residents, young and old... both imaginative and brutally honest... Children will wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Marta that lives, like socks, are elastic." --Emily Schneider, Imaginary Elevators, A Blog about Children's Literature
