The Birthday Swap

Review
By De Colores

In this sweet autobiographical story, six-year-old Lori, who lives with her family in a town on the US side of the border with Mexico, wants to find the perfect birthday gift for her teenage sister, Cookie. Lopez’s illustrations, rendered in gouache and colored pencils on watercolor paper, are warm and bright and inviting. The text is attractively bordered with pictures of objects commonly sold in mercados, so different from supermarkets here. Birthday Swap is a good addition to a collection about Latino families, and is recommended.