Books by Isabel Minhos Martins and Complete Book Reviews
Isabel Minh%C3%B3s Martins, illus. by Madalena Matoso. Abrams/Tate, $12.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-85437-958-0
This small gem by a Portuguese duo celebrates the wonder of mere existence. "When I was born I had never seen anything," Martins begins, the words appearing alone in white type in a sea of black. "Only the darkness of my mother's tummy." A pink-faced
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Isabel Minhós Martins, trans. from the Portuguese by John Herring, illus. by Madalena Matoso. Owlkids (PGW, dist.), $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-926973-68-5
The Portuguese team behind When I Was Born returns with a story about an apartment building gone to the dogs (and elephants). Residents are shocked when a blue dog moves into a vacant apartment. “My parents thought it was very strange to have a dog...
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Isabel Minhós Martins, illus. by Yara Kono. Owlkids (PGW, dist.), $16.95 (28p) ISBN 978-1-92697-314-2
A boy receives a gentle nudge about sharing in a story first published in Spain. The nursery-rhyme lines of the title begin each request, as the boy asks a sheep for wool to keep him warm: “I should make a pair of mittens/ to tuck my hands into./ My
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Isabel Minhós Martins, illus. by Madalena Matoso. Tate (Abrams, dist.), $14.95 (44p) ISBN 978-1-84976-160-4
Martins and Matoso return to the existential subject matter of their 2011 collaboration, When I Was Born; while the title might suggest an exploration of death, it investigates a much broader range of disappearances. “Most of the time we don’t go...
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Isabel Minhós Martins and Yara Kono. Thames & Hudson, $14.95 (28p) ISBN 978-0-500-65077-6
Martins and Kono suggest that sleepy children won’t make it until the end of this well-conceived and sharply designed alphabet, first published in Portugal. A is for “awake,” represented by two round, black eyes that stare out at readers (“This is...
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