Spanish / Spain
Un día de tormenta
(A stormy day)
Nesquens, Daniel
(text)
Maguma
(illus.)
[Mataró, Barcelona]: A buen paso, [2018]. – [30] p.
ISBN 978-84-17555-02-3
Water | Rain | Drop | Picture book
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2019
Isn’t a raindrop just a raindrop? The two stories in this double-sided book, which can be read front-to-back, flipped around, and then read back-to-front, beg to differ! In the first story, tiny raindrops splatter on the ground next to the foot of a pedestrian and become a heaving sea. Every drop reveals something new: A shiny silver fish jumps, a fishing boat dances on the water, a surfer rides the wild waves. In the flip story, a single drop is enough to flood a house and sweep it away. Floor by floor, its residents and their furniture and other goods whoosh by, until the people find refuge and a new home on a boat. Daniel Nesquens tells both stories in his own, unmistakeable way. He needs only a few sentences to unfurl a big story from a small idea, drawing on refined, laconic humour and absurdist flair. Maguma’s detail-rich pictures recall the style and colour palette of 1950s and 1960s illustration, which suits the elegant text well.