Me Llamo Gabriela: La Vida de Gabriela Mistral (Bilingual English/Spanish)

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 poet -s lifelong love affair with words and stories. Parra -s 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 Mistral -s work. An exquisite addition for most collections. Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.