Spanish / Mexico
Tres caídas y un salto al mar
(Three falls and a jump into the sea)
Hinojosa Rebolledo, Esteban
(text)
Bonilla Núñez, Abraham
(illus.)
México: Ediciones Proceso, 2016. – 63 p.
ISBN 978-607-7876-32-8
Outsider | Friendship | Peer group | First love
Reading age: 10+
White Ravens issue: 2017
Andrés and Margarita Rosa, the main characters of this great story from young Mexican author Esteban Hinojosa Rebolledo (b. 1987), couldn’t be more different. Andrés is the small, shy, new boy in class whose mother is fatally ill, and Margarita Rosa is the stoic, quiet, resolute, overweight girl. They form an invisible bond as outsiders of the class. Margarita Rosa protects Andrés, who longs for recognition. She helps him gain self-esteem and gradually establish his place at the school. But she also guards him from abusing his newly won status: when Enrique the “nerd” joins the class and is bullied by all the children, Andrés finds himself annoyed by the new kid but also oddly drawn to him. Margarita Rosa urges him to look inside his heart, which beats fast in Enrique’s presence! The sensitive story ends with a jump into cold water, goose bumps, and butterflies in the stomach.