Spanish / Chile
El bosque de lo diminuto
(The forest of tiny creatures)
Undurraga, Sol
(text/illus.)
Fuentealba, Marcela
(text)
Santiago, Chile: Saposcat, [2023]. – [40] p.
ISBN 978-956-9866-27-2
Forest | Insect | Spider | Ecosystem | Non-fiction | Picture book
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2023
Is this an information book? A picture book? A sketch book? In any case, it is a book that transcends the boundaries of genre and classification. In »El bosque de lo diminuto« the illustrator Sol Undurraga – also known by her pen name Mujer Gallina – devotes herself, with the support of Marcela Fuentealba, to the smallest creatures of the forest. Using bright colours, the magnificent, powerful images show the captivating beauty and diversity of the fascinating, but sometimes also a little creepy looking insects and spiders. Individual species are presented in small formats or in page-filling displays. In essence, the unusual book tries to illustrate the fragility of the forest as an ecosystem, in which everything is interconnected to form a greater whole, and to give evidence of how humans are endangering it. Sol Undurraga takes a personal approach to this topic by placing scientific facts alongside of curious details, and suddenly, in the middle of the book, by talking about the human lack of respect for nature. [JW]