Elena's Serenade

Rating:
Summary: Glass menagerie
Review: I'll cut a book a whole swath of slack of it's beautifully illustrated. I'm not ashamed to admit it either. A story could be pedantic, repetitive, and dull and I'd still be gaga over it if the pictures were pretty enough. Now in the case of Campbell Geeslin's, "Elena's Serenade", I'm torn. The tale told here is actually rather interesting and well-written. Its heroine sets out on a kind of small picaresque quest and gains her heart's desire by the end. Now certainly the story is not the best written in the world. It drops certain plot points here and fails to offer any reason for other occurrences there. But it's a nice enough tale and when you take into consideration the overwhelming beauty of artist Ana Juan's illustrations.... well let's just say it's enough to salve over any nit-picking I might have. "Elena's Serenade" is beautiful and affecting without straining to please. If you don't love it, I can think of a hundred small schoolchildren who would.

Told in the first person, we see the world of Mexico through little Elena's eyes. The daughter of a glassblower, Elena's one dream is to someday learn the trade. Unfortunately, female glassblowers are entirely unheard of at this time and, anyway, Elena is too little. At the advice of her brother our heroine decides to disguise herself as a boy and travel all the way to Monterrey to study with the world's best glassblowers. Along the way she plays funny tunes on her glassblowing pipe and helps out a burro, a roadrunner, and a lovesick off-tune coyote. In Monterrey, Elena displays her new glassblowing via music technique. Suddenly she's creating stars with five points, butterflies that clink their delicate glass wings, and huge magnificent birds, one of which takes her back home. At the end of all her journeys, Elena is pleased to show her new talents to her papa and to play delightful tunes with colorful images from the tip of her glassblowing pipe.

Obviously the story has some rough spots. After all, why does Elena help out the animals of the desert if their trials have nothing to do with the story at large? What time period is this in which girls cannot be glassblowers? Sure looks like present day to me. And the magical source of Elena's power is left unclear, though I'm willing to chalk that up to magical realism and just leave it at that. These problems could have sunk a book with an illustrator less talented than Ana Juan. As it is, it's clear to me that author Campbell Geeslin lucked out. Juan first hit the children's picture book scene with a jaw-droppingly beautiful encapsulation of Frida Kahlo's life entitled, "Frida" (by Jonah Winter). She follows that success up with the equally magnificent "Elena's Serenade", and I couldn't be more pleased. Elena is the perfect heroine. Comically ridiculous when she attaches half a tortilla to her face to look like a beard. Incredibly pitiable when she hunches over in pouty misery after her father tells her that her dreams are impossible. Each page in this book is filled with luminous rounded images. From the glass butterflies that soar through the air to the moon's face as she lovingly listens to the coyote's song. Juan is also particularly good at lighting. The scenes beside the glassblower furnaces are my personal favorites. I loved how the artist was able to meld together the faces of the Monterrey artists as they stare in wonderment at Elena's fabulous glowing orange glass star. If you would like to be blown away by a book's pictures for a little while, consider being blown away by this one.

There is no getting around the fact that there are not enough picture books in the United States that celebrate aspects of Mexican life. This is one of the few and I for one will be recommending it to every child I come across for the next fiftysome years. It's not the best writing in the world but it may well have the biggest heart. For a perfectly marvelous and beautiful story, consider trying your hand on the magnificent, "Elena's Serenade". It'll make you and your children happy.

Rating:
Summary: Elena's Serenade
Review: This book is so wonderful. We checked it out at the library and this is the only book that my daughter wanted to read. It deals with the misconception that girls can't do the same things as boys and be good at it. It showed her that she can do anything that she puts her mind to and she may even be better than boys are.

Rating:
Summary: A fabulous treasure...
Review: We picked this up at the library because I loved the illustrations and could not be happier that we did! It takes a feminist theme (that appealed greatly to my two boys)along with liberal amounts of Spanish language (glossary included) and weaves them into a magical story, complete with talking animals and fanciful glass creations. The illustrations are perfect (my three year old found them quite funny)and the prose is lilting and quite satisfying to read out loud. It incorporates so many wonderful themes---a multicultural outlook, empowerment of girls, magical happenings,the journey while disguised, etc.--that it should become a classic in schools and homes everywhere. "Bravo!"