This fictionalized biography of Gabriela Mistral, the first Latina to win the Nobel Prize in literature, describes her childhood in Chile, focusing on her love of teaching and storytelling. The first-person narrative is told in both English and Spanish, a choice simultaneously awkward and eye-opening. Stylized illustrations ably reinforce the text and setting.

K-Gr 2 This lyrical homage to the Chilean Nobel Prize winner is a joy to read. Written in the first person, the simple text follows the life of the poet from her earliest days (in which, as a girl, she chooses her own name and teaches herself to read) to her internationally renowned career in literature. Brown and the unnamed translator have created a poignantly poetic text that reads equally well in English and in Spanish. It depicts, above all else, the poets lifelong love affair with words and stories. Parras naive-style illustrations, which appear to be painted on wood, go well beyond complementing the text. They offer a view into a softly colored world of people, places, and creatures, real or imagined, that were described in Mistrals work. An exquisite addition for most collections.