Spanish / Guatemala
Alma del mar
(Alma of the sea)
Gamboa, Jaime
(text)
Ycaza, Roger
(illus.)
Mixco, Guatemala: Amanuense, 2016. – [34] p.
ISBN -
Sea | Imagination | Storytelling | Picture book
Reading age: 5+
White Ravens issue: 2016
“Papa, tell me about the sea”. Alma loves her father’s ever-changing stories. He tells her stories of the sea and of her grandfather who was a fisherman, but had to give up his job and move to the far-away city. Stories full of unfamiliar, exciting words. One day, father and daughter finally travel to the shining, shimmering, pungent sea, where the sand burns under one’s feet. It is a moment of joy and of strong emotion, as Alma learns it is also her father’s first time seeing the sea. This is a book about the gift of seeing the world with open eyes and amazement and of enjoying life. The colourful pictures on wide double pages capture the world in a truly special way. Countless dots and spots coalesce into shapes and colours. The water sparkles, the air glimmers, the sand shimmers, and observers sense how the sea becomes a fantastical, nearly unfathomable dream world in the imaginations of father and daughter.