Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

On May 27, 1937, 456 children were evacuated from Spain during the Spanish Civil War. This book depicts their trans-Atlantic voyage to Mexico.Text and illustrations work hand in hand to tell their story. Adults carrying bundles and escorting children arrive at the port where the children are to embark. As the children board, the adults hug them tight. Through the voice of one of the children, readers learn of their fears and expectations. They see the older ones reassuring the younger ones, especially at night. They observe their songs and games, sad re-creations of the war scenes they have witnessed. They experience the voyage, which never seems to end. And finally the children arrive: "We move forward. We think that the war stayed behind. But it's not true-we bring the war in our suitcases." By focusing on the children (all depicted as White) and their feelings, the story of their journey becomes the sad, universal one of so many refugee children past and present. Sepia-toned images with the occasional touch of muted reds convey the grimness of the experience. The afterword informs readers the children arrived in Mexico with the expectation their stay would be short and they would soon reunite with their families back home. Little did they know this would be a permanent exile, and most of them would never see their families again.Specific yet universal in its narration, this makes the refugee experience accessible to young readers. (Picture book. 6-10)

ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

In commemoration of a lesser-known predecessor to WWII's Kindertransport, this atmospheric import recalls a 1937 voyage in which the titular ship carried 456 children of Spanish Republicans to safety in Mexico for, supposedly, a brief stay. Ferrada, a Chilean writer, takes the voice (if not the language) of a younger child for her terse, poetic narrative: "War is a huge hand that shakes you / and throws you onto a ship." Working from period photos for her illustrations, Penyas uses a dark, somber palette to portray downcast children trooping aboard a ship made small on a broad ocean, being welcomed in Veracruz, and then taking a train for Morelia, a city in Michoacán where, due to the outcome of the Spanish Civil War, most were to remain until at least 1948. Or so the author explains in a closing note that, though the appendix alludes to extensive research and interviews (none of which are cited), is disappointingly vague about the actual children and what became of any of them.

Horn Book

In the spring of 1937, the ship Mexique sailed from France to Mexico with 456 Spanish refugees, all children whose parents were fighting on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. The expected three-to-four months away became years and, for some, a lifetime, as Franco's retribution against former Republicans and then the onset of World War II made it impossible for the children to return home. Ferrada focuses on the journey itself, told from the limited perspective of one (likely fictional) young child. "I can't really remember where we are going, but it is far." The narrator clings to the older children -- "Clara, Sonia, Eulalia, Maria, our sisters, collect our tears in their handkerchiefs" -- finding strength from companionship through a difficult transition from the familiar but terrifying wartime Spain to the unknown but welcoming Morelia, Mexico. "We play at imagining where we are going. Morelia is a color...Morelia is a fruit." Penyas's illustrations are primarily black and white, with accents of red. The palette effectively establishes setting and grabs readers' attention. Per an appended note: "The images in this book are based on photographs of the 'Children of Morelia' and the ship that brought them to Mexico," adding a further layer of realism and poignancy. In one spread, small panes each show a different view of the open ocean, fragments of the narrator's interminable journey. Although the specifics of the story are clearly historical, there is a universality to them that connects these pages to the tale of every child sent away from home for safety during times of war.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

On May 27, 1937, 456 children were evacuated from Spain during the Spanish Civil War. This book depicts their trans-Atlantic voyage to Mexico.Text and illustrations work hand in hand to tell their story. Adults carrying bundles and escorting children arrive at the port where the children are to embark. As the children board, the adults hug them tight. Through the voice of one of the children, readers learn of their fears and expectations. They see the older ones reassuring the younger ones, especially at night. They observe their songs and games, sad re-creations of the war scenes they have witnessed. They experience the voyage, which never seems to end. And finally the children arrive: "We move forward. We think that the war stayed behind. But it's not true-we bring the war in our suitcases." By focusing on the children (all depicted as White) and their feelings, the story of their journey becomes the sad, universal one of so many refugee children past and present. Sepia-toned images with the occasional touch of muted reds convey the grimness of the experience. The afterword informs readers the children arrived in Mexico with the expectation their stay would be short and they would soon reunite with their families back home. Little did they know this would be a permanent exile, and most of them would never see their families again.Specific yet universal in its narration, this makes the refugee experience accessible to young readers. (Picture book. 6-10)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

-Three or four months./ Like summer vacation, only longer.- That is what the narrator-s parents say when a child is placed on the Mexique, a ship bound for the Mexican city of Morelia during the Spanish Civil War. Working in a somber palette of black and white with accents of faded red, illustrator Penyas draws in childlike art, sometimes over photographed images of the 456 children aboard, -all children of Spanish Republicans,- with expressive strokes and smudges. On board, older children minister to younger (-sisters/ we didn-t have before-). Ferrada (Tweet!) creates powerful metaphors (-War is a huge hand that shakes you/ and throws you onto a ship-) and expresses the children-s realization when they arrive in Mexico: -We think that the war stayed behind. But it-s not true-we bring the war in our suitcases.- The story ends there, but journalist Ferrada-s detailed afterword tells the grim truth: safer in Mexico throughout the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, many of the children never went home. It-s a sobering contribution to the history of Spanish-speaking people in North America, and a memorial to a little-known group of refugees. Ages 7-10. (Oct.)