El Barrio
PreSchool-Grade 2—A neighborhood that will ring true for many readers is introduced in this picture book. "This isel barrio!/My home in the city/with its rain-washed murals/and sparkling graffiti." The speaker goes on to list all the things that make the community what it is:Cinco de Mayoand Day of the Dead,quinceañerasand piñatas, "Aztec eyes and Mayan faces." The poetic text and glowing illustrations praise a type of neighborhood that is often derogated or ignored: "silver-streaked tenements,/neon city streets,/storefront churches,/andbodegasthat never sleep." Diaz returns to his classic thick-outlined woodcuts, but here the outlines change color through a rainbow of hues, making the spreads shimmer with color and movement. The framed spreads float over photographic collages that evoke the city—as in Eve Bunting'sSmoky Night(Harcourt, 1994), but here, with more festivity. The book never goes far beyond its lists; a description of aquinceañeraat the end attempts to link a narrative to the speaker, but is thin and almost unnecessary. Yet simply by calling upon these images as treasure ("syrupy sweetchurros,/ice-coldpaletas/and a lemon-yellow fire escape/as tall as a city skyscraper"), the book shows some young readers that their neighborhood, too, is both normal and special—and shows others what lies in the neighborhoods next to theirs.—Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.