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Monday, September 30, 2013

The Quiet Place

The Quiet Place
Sarah Stewart
Pictures by David Small
2012

It is 1957 and Isabel's family have said goodbye to her Aunt Lupita and their native Mexico to travel North. Isabel writes letters to her aunt, where she discusses her attempts to use new English words, her school, the parties her mother cooks for, and her new quiet place: a cardboard box where she writes her letters in English. As the picture book goes on, Isabel's quiet place and her vocabulary both grow beautifully. The illustrations really complete the story, everything from the stray dogs so familiar in the streets of Mexico to the beautiful cardboard place that Isabel has created and nurtured. As a side note, I love how the creators included a small teddy bear that goes everywhere with Isabel; it is small details like these, and like the decorations on Isabel's quiet place, that really made me enjoy this book even more.

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