Spanish / Spain
El selfi
(The selfie)
Serrano, Pilar
(text)
Camp, Joaquín
(illus.)
Barcelona: Takatuka, 2021. – [28] p.
ISBN 978-84-18821-12-7
Animals | Mobile phone | Selfie | Picture book
Reading age: 4+
White Ravens issue: 2022
Selfies are taken all over the place, as one can see in this delightful picture book. One sunny day, Beaver sets off on an outing in the countryside. What a gorgeous view! How peaceful! Nothing but birds’ twittering. A perfect spot for a selfie, thinks Beaver – if it weren’t for all the other animals, magnetically drawn toward his camera. The friendly beaver is patient. All of them are allowed to get into the shot: a rabbit and its very large family, a racoon, some nutrias, a stag, a bear, a wild boar… Gradually it gets a bit cramped, the animals are climbing all over each other. It’s getting dark, the battery is nearly empty. »Everyone look this way – cheese!« Exhausted, but happy Beaver returns home. The photo is so-so, but the day was fantastic. Pilar Serrano and Joaquín Camp lampoon the human (and evidently also animal) obsession with selfies in a most humorous and congenial manner. The ever growing, merry confusion is hilarious, and a guarantee that one will pick up this book over and over again. [JW]