cover image Nico Visita la Luna = Nico Visits the Moon

Nico Visita la Luna = Nico Visits the Moon

Honorio Robledo. Cinco Puntos Press, $15.95 (30pp) ISBN 978-0-938317-62-3

PreS-Gr 1-Nico, a hyperkinetic two-year-old, has reduced his parents' home to rubble. The frustrated folks have suspended everything remotely breakable from balloons, which prove to be their undoing. Waking up unexpectedly, Nico crawls off, grabbing balloons as he goes, and sails up into the air. The frantic parents pursue, sending out the police and the fire department, but to no avail. Nico ends up on the moon. To keep him company, up go his two kittens (attached to balloons, as well). His parents send packages of food and love, until (three years later) astronauts rescue him and just in time for kindergarten. This fanciful story is well matched by scratchy pen and ink and watercolor illustrations that look as if they were executed by Peter Max in a manic mood. The idea of a small child stranded on the moon for three years is less than reassuring, especially as his voyage begins because his parents are too busy watching basketball and painting fingernails to notice what is happening with their child. However, it's all presented in such a fun-loving positive vein that young readers or listeners will take it in stride as a grand adventure. The snappy Spanish text is identical in its antic tone to the English version. This is a good choice for story times or bedtime reading, despite a rather abrupt ending. Ann Welton, Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, Tacoma, WA