It is Little Chaski’s first day of delivering royal messages. He has to be strong, swift, and sharp. He gets his first mission from Queen Qoya. He is to take an important khipu (a knotted rope and thread recording system) to the King. He puts the khipu into his bag, called a ch’uspa. He runs off as fast as a puma. Along the way, he stops to help a chinchilla, a drowning allqu, and a trapped condor. When he finally gets to the temple and the King asks for the khipu, Little Chaski discovers that his ch’uspa is empty. But just then, his three grateful animal friends soar from the clouds and drop the message into Little Chaski’s hands. He is so relieved. The King tells him that his adventure was a test and since he was so kind along the way, he is now an official messenger – Big-Hearted Chaski. The colorful, bold illustrations in this engaging tale combine traditional Peruvian folk art techniques and digital media. A glossary of Quechua words, interesting information about the culture, history, and animals of the Inka, and a map of the Inka Empire at around 1525 CE further distinguish the storytelling. mjw |
| Title: Run, Little Chaski! An Inka Adventure Author: Mariana Llanos Illustrator: Mariana Ruiz Johnson Publisher: Barefoot Books. Concord, MA Copyright: 2021 Original Language: English. Also a Spanish edition. ISBN: 978-1-64686-164-4 Hardcover pages: 32 Age range: 3-7 Genre: Picture Book, Historical Fiction, Information Book Book setting: Ancient Inka (Inca) Empire, Peru Author’s ethnicity: Peruvian Author’s residence: Oklahoma Illustrator’s ethnicity: Peruvian Illustrator’s residence: Buenos Aires Argentina Subjects: Action, Ancient civilizations, Cultures, Incan Empire, Kindness, Multicultural, Peru, Peruvian tales, South America |
Run, Little Chaski! An Inka Trail Adventure
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This bilingual Spanish-English edition, the first illustrated selection of 70 questions from Pablo Neruda’s original poem (320 questions), The Book of Questions, is a glorious introduction to Neruda’s works for young children. “Why don’t they teach helicopters how to draw honey from the sun? How did the abandoned bicycle find its freedom? Does the earth chirp like a cricket in the symphony of the skies?” These are a few of the unanswerable imaginative questions posed in the text. The book is large and includes fold-out pages. Blues, reds, and yellows against black or white backgrounds created by pencil and ink have a folk art feel. This is a gorgeous book. mjw
Yellow canaries sing melodies to the silver miners in the Harz Mountains in Germany. Today, a bird dealer has come to put the canaries into individual wooden cages and take them on a voyage by train and then by steamship across the Atlantic Ocean to bustling New York City. Beautiful mixed media illustrations enhance this fascinating story about the little-known history of the canaries and their lovely melodies. Back matter includes notes on the history of canaries and the ways they were used and transported by humans in the 1800s. In the year 1882 alone, 120,000 canaries were shipped to New York City. A map of their journey is featured on the book’s endpapers. mjw
While watching a ghost story on TV one night, fifth-grader Kazuhiro Sada sees a pale figure in a white kimono sneaking out of his house. He sees the same figure in school the next day. She is Akari, a girl his classmates insist he has known since kindergarten. Then he finds out that his house sits on the exact location of an ancient temple called Kimyo. Legend has is that the name Kimyo implies the dead coming back to life. Kazu befriends Akari and they spend the summer trying to make sense of the mystery. This thrilling adventure filled with the living dead, a story-within-a-story, a meddling neighbor, and a black cat is illustrated with manga-like drawings. mjw
Crow sets off on a journey to find happiness. He first meets a gentle dove. Dove says that he thought he was the happiest bird alive until he heard Nightingale. So Crow goes to hear Nightingale, who says he thought he was happy until he heard Rooster. Crow then visits Rooster and is told that Swan must be the happiest bird alive. Finally he is encouraged to see Peacock, who truly must be the happiest bird in the world. Peacock says that once he was happy, but the emperor put him in a cage and all he wanted then was to be free to fly like a crow. So Crow flies back to the woods knowing that he is happy with his life and that all he wants is to share his happiness. This beautiful fable about happiness is illustrated in glorious, joyful colors. mjw
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