A Sky Without Lines

Gr 1-4-Arturo dreams of reuniting with his brother Antonio who lives with their father on one side of a line, while he and his mother live on the other. Arturo loves looking at maps and likes looking at the lines that show where the different countries meet. But his mother tells him that the lines are there to stop people from moving freely. Arturo misses the older brother who taught him to ride a bike and kick a soccer ball and wonders how they can be together again. Could he perhaps squeeze through a gap in the line; build a tunnel and go under it; or build a bridge and go over the line? Borràs's stylized watercolors in warm hues of ochre, brown, and red capture the desert environment where the brothers' adobe house sits. The southern border of the United States is depicted with an impenetrable fence keeping the brothers apart. While a host of coyotelike creatures appear in most illustrations, there are also geese overhead, perhaps foreshadowing Arturo's dream of flying high up into space where he will reunite with Antonio. VERDICT As children experience more and more forced migration and forbidding borders in their worlds, this book serves a useful look at the human side of geopolitics and an effective discussion opener. -Lucia Acosta, Children's Literature Specialist, Princeton, NJ