Quite a few remarkable new titles have been released just in time for Hispanic Heritage Month. And I'll be sharing a lot of them here over the next few weeks.
The first set is a pair of bilingual board books by my favorite U.S. Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera. He served as the 21st United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. I think he was the first Hispanic to do so.
Herrera is a prolific author whose work includes quite a few children's books. But I believe these are his first board books for little ones.
It's easy to figure out what they are about. Cerca, Close and Lejos, Far (aff links) are short, sweet stories that help young readers understand the concepts described in the titles. A single illustration takes up two pages and each one has one sentence. Take a look:
I love that the books contain full text in both English and Spanish. And I find the illustrations to be lovely in their simplicity with a strong focus on shapes.
These are a great addition to any home or school library, especially because the concepts of near/close and far are not easily found in books but are both important concepts for toddlers and preschoolers to master.
You can find them on Amazon: