Walk with Me

Los Especiales De a La Orilla Del Viento

by Jairo Buitrago, Rafael Yockteng (Illustrator), Elisa Amado (Translator)

A simple, imaginative story depicting the complex emotional reality of a girl whose father no longer lives at home. The girl conjures up an imaginary companion ― a lion ― who will join her on the long walk home from school. He will help her to pick up her baby brother from daycare and shop at the store (which has cut off the family’s credit), and he’ll keep her company all along the way until she is safely home. He will always come back when she needs him, unlike her father whom she sees only in a photograph ― a photograph in which he clearly resembles a lion. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy, Family, Historical Fiction, Childrens, Animals, Poverty

32 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2008

About the author

Jairo Buitrago lives in Mexico City and is the author of Jimmy the Greatest, Two White Rabbits, Walk with Me, Cave Paintings, among others—all of which have earned many starred reviews. His most recent books are Wounded Falcons and Drawing Outdoors.

Reviews

[Amy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

You think this is just a nice book about a girl and her imaginary lion, and then it punches you in the face with feels.

The illustrations are totally lovely.

[La Coccinelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was deeper than I was expecting. I didn't read the synopsis, which pretty much gives everything away. I'm glad I went into it without knowing too much; the emotional impact was greater.

The pictures depicting the results of the girl's imagination, are quite sweet. They also convey a sense of place (the story looks like it takes place somewhere in South America; I doubt you'd see a small child picking up her baby brother from daycare in most parts of North America). It's a nice little peek into the lives of other people, lives that might be very different from our own. But the emotions conveyed--especially in the last part of the book--are universal. Though it's not explicitly explained, we can draw our own conclusions, any of which are fairly emotional.

The depth of this little picture book surprised me. In a good way!

[Alaide Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gracias Camino a casa, por recordarme lo poderosa e ingeniosa que puede ser la literatura para las infancias.

[Kokelector · Rating 4 out of 5]

No le coloco 5 estrella sólo porque te deja un poco con el corazón apretado. Un libro álbum cargado del simbolismo de la imaginación de una niña que regresa a casa del colegio a casa acompañada de un león maravilloso... Pero ese león esconde una triste verdad ... Entre la nostalgia de quiénes ya no están y el recuerdo indeleble que dejan en nosotros y nosotras, todo desde la mirada casi inocente de una niña que extraña en demasía. Hermoso también, de principio a fin.

Acá está.

[Dimity Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the subtle, unforced approach these two talented artists imbue their stories with. Superbly sensitive and simple. A young girl bolsters her spirit with an imaginary companion in order to cope with the many daily challenges and expectations of her that make up her daily life: long walks to school by herself, collecting her baby brother whilst her mother works, navigating the wilds and dangers of a large unpredictable city, negotiating for food when the credit is all gone and then preparing the daily meals and all without the guidance or security of having two parents about. Buitrago and Yockteng have taken a massive slice of life and condensed it into a story of profound meaning that even the youngest of readers will connect with. Superb.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I audibly gasped at the end of this book. I might let out a little laugh or a little 'aw' at some picture books, but I'm rarely caught so off guard by where we're heading that I actually gasp. This is so well done. It's a bit heart-breakingly beautiful, but amazing. Buitrago's work is always good and honest and deals with topics that I wish more children's books would try to tackle. Love. Love. Love. Recommended!

[Mississippi Library Commission · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walk with Me is one of those unique picture books that can evoke different responses from the various people who read it. Younger kids will be struck by its themes of imagination and courage, which were super sweet and beautifully done. As you spend the afternoon with the heroine of the story, you'll be swept up into her story, so don't be surprised if you cry a little tear at the end. We did.

[fernanda espinosa loyola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia preciosa.

[Camila Riquelme Jaque · Rating 3 out of 5]

Camino a casa es un álbum ilustrado que a través de sus dibujos y la imaginación de una niña, nos muestra con especial sutileza un problema que es muy recurrente actualmente: la ausencia de una figura paterna.
Una de las cosas que más me ha gustado de este libro, son la relevancia que toman las imágenes en la narración de toda la historia. Si ponen atención a todos los detalles de las ilustraciones podrán descubrir muchas cosas interesantes y que revelarán el transfondo de la historia.

Me ha parecido nostálgico y enternecedor. Créanme cuando les digo que les llegará al corazón.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple, emotionally resonant story about a young girl who invents a lion as a an imaginary friend who will fill the roles of her father who no longer lives at home. Translated from Spanish, originally published in Mexico.

[Juliana Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and touching story of a girl living in poverty, keeping her father in her heart. Leaving the city, a little girl asks a lion to walk her home from school (escuela). The lion keeps her company while scaring everyone else. He protects her on the city streets, waits while she picks up her baby brother from daycare, and roars when the storekeeper won't give the girl credit anymore. He sits at the table entertaining her brother while she cooks dinner and waits at the curb while her mother comes home from the factory. The girl releases him from his duties as long as he comes back when she calls, then she goes to bed with her mother and brother in a room with cracked walls and only one mattress on the floor. But before she goes to sleep she reaches out and touches a framed photo of her family, one with her mother, baby brother, herself, and her father (whose hair looks a lot like a lion's mane).

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful translated picture book about a young girl giving herself a source of confidence as she takes on the role of an adult too early. I'm not sure which part made me sniffle more, when the store wouldn't give them credit or when she had to pick up her baby brother from daycare. Best for one-on-one sharing.

[Carolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se me aguó el ojo hojeándolo. Mi papá era el deseo en cada estrella fugaz, el protagonista de ghost, el papá que reencarnaba en perro en Fluke... esa mamá era mi mamá, ese hermano era el mio, esa escena de los tres en la misma cama la viví...too close to home

A veces sólo faltan imágenes y una pequeña prosa para despertar la propia narrativa interior. Un nuevo favorito!

[Urbandale Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story of a little girl and her strong imaginary friend appear to be just that on the surface. Diving deeper, this translated story reveals how the little girl conjures an imaginary friend, a lion, to cope with the absence of her father. It was both a touching and heart-breaking read to see her struggle and courageously walk with her lion.

[Dylan Teut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to the end and went AWWWW! and it almost made me cry. Don't miss this one.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aww! What a beautiful book about courage! This is one of those great books where the illustrations and text mesh together seamlessly in one glorious picture book experience.

[Lizzie]

Simple illustrations and text and yet very arresting in it's message and emotional reality.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good one-on-one conversation starter about how people live and can use their imaginations to help them in difficult situations.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid 4.5 for me - because I thought this was about an imaginary friend lion and then those last few pages made me suddenly gasp and burst into tears.

I’m sure many readers will relate.

[Linda]

After school, a girl asks a lion to walk home with her; if she has company, she won't fall asleep on her way. We see her walk further and further from school, pick up her baby brother at the babysitter's, buy groceries, and cook dinner.

OK, this one took me a while to understand. After she mentions falling asleep, I thought that this was some kind of world where people mysteriously fall asleep in the afternoons, and that all the people in the pictures were yawning. But, this is a lovely story about the harsh reality that many children live in, where they're forced to grow up quickly because their family would fall apart if they didn't.


Description: A little girl imagines a lion taking the place of her father who no longer lives with her family, an animal that keeps her safe on her travels from school to home.

Genre:
Picture books for children
Translations -- Spanish to English

Tone:
Moving

Writing Style:
Minimal text

Illustration:
Muted

Subject headings:
Father-separated girls
Imaginary companions
Girls and lions
Lion
Girls

Other Contributors:
Yockteng, Rafael, illustrator
Amado, Elisa, translator

Author Characteristics:
Male
Columbia
Colombian

Booklist:
Grades K-2 A young girl asks a lion to walk with her as she leaves school, picks up her younger brother from daycare, makes dinner, and waits for her mother to get home from working in a factory. The end pages offer a clue to the undercurrent of this picture book : the front pages show the footprints of a child and a lion, but on the back pages, the lion’s prints are replaced by a man’s shoe prints. The girl’s father is gone—where exactly is not stated—but a cheerful family photograph demonstrates the love that they shared. The richly colored, expressionistic multimedia illustrations add a great deal of depth to the minimal text. By studying the details, readers will learn about the girl’s life and challenges. Younger children can enjoy the thought of riding a lion through city traffic, while older readers will note the dilapidated condition of the girl’s neighborhood and apartment. Lions are animals often associated with bravery, so the girl seeking strength from her imagined relationship with the lion presents a compelling narrative. -- Whitehurst, Lucinda (Reviewed 1/1/2017) (Booklist, vol 113, number 9, p104)

School Library Journal:
/* Starred Review */ Gr 1–4—A girl invites an imaginary lion, a metaphor for her missing father, to accompany her on her long walk home. Along the way, she must pick up her baby brother from child care and purchase groceries, and when they arrive home, she prepares dinner before her mother returns from the factory. The illustrations are all full-bleed spreads. Sketched in pencil, scanned, and then redrawn and colored digitally, they depict a run-down neighborhood, with buildings in disrepair and clothing drying on a rooftop near rabbit-ear antennas. The necessity for the young girl to assume so many adult tasks and the spare apartment with cracked walls, a broken cabinet, and one bed shared by mother and children are evidence of the poverty they experience in the absence of the girl's father. While the text contains no Spanish words, there are Spanish signs on buildings and advertisements, and though the time and place are not specified, there is much that can be inferred. In a family portrait, the father's bushy hair closely resembles the mane of the lion the girl invents to help her brave the difficult and scary aspects of her life. What might have happened to her father? Details in the illustrations hint at the many cases of "los desaparecidos" in Latin American history. How can readers cope with their own life challenges? VERDICT With guided discussion, youngsters can see beyond the deceptive simplicity of this poignant story. A strong choice for all collections.—Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA --Marianne Saccardi (Reviewed 03/01/2017) (School Library Journal, vol 63, issue 03, p101)

Publishers Weekly:
/* Starred Review */ The duo behind Two White Rabbits returns with another compassionate portrait of a child negotiating difficult circumstances with grace. The narrator, an unnamed girl with shaggy dark hair, is joined by an imposing lion as she makes her way through a rundown, smoggy city after school. Wherever they go, passersby look on with shock (some faint in fright). “Let’s go together into the neighborhood,” she says, “and into the store that won’t give us credit anymore.” (Here, the lion unleashes a mighty roar, and the shopkeeper quickly pushes two bags full of groceries to the girl.) Yockteng’s smudgy pencil drawings fill in many details left unsaid by Buitrago’s understated text; together they reveal a girl who quietly and capably handles the adult tasks set before her (picking up her baby brother, cooking dinner while her mother works). The closing revelation that the lion represents her absent father leaves readers with haunting and poignant questions; whether he has actually returned, briefly, or if the lion reflects her imagined wish for his companionship is left as open-ended as the unexplained reasons for his absence. Ages 4–7. (Mar.) --Staff (Reviewed 03/06/2017) (Publishers Weekly, vol 264, issue 10, p)

Kirkus:
/* Starred Review */ A lion accompanies a child on a walk home during a day in the city in this wistful tale of parental absence.The story begins with a simple gesture: a nameless, light-skinned child in a school uniform holds out a flower to a lion. "Keep me company on the way home," says the child. The lion then follows the child, terrifying adults—and delighting other kids—at school and on the city's streets all the way home. The pair dashes by crowded buses and cars, stops to pick up the child-narrator's younger sibling, and even shops at "the store that won't give us credit anymore." (Fortunately, the ferocious feline can help with the last difficulty.) At home, things start to settle down as the trio prepares a meal and waits for Mama to return from the factory. The day soon ends, and the lion departs, though the child-narrator hopes it returns when called. Similar to Buitrago and Yockteng's previous collaborations, the story ends on a poignant and unexpected note. The first-person narration tugs readers along with ease, deftly eliciting compassion from the performance of seemingly mundane tasks. Yockteng's muted illustrations depict the city as full of cracked buildings, drab colors, and expression captured in movement. Minor details in the pictures, including environmental print in Spanish, take readers in different directions all at once, adding to the low-key narration. Emotionally resonant in the loveliest of ways. (Picture book . 4-7)(Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2017)

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[isabel ~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

adoro la literatura infantil y “camino a casa” es una clara representación del porqué 😭 bellísimo

[Jeimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

That last page! 💔😢

I love that the illustrations were still in Spanish.

[Francisca Cubillos · Rating 5 out of 5]

que dolor

[emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

buen recordatorio de que la literatura infantil también puede tener mensajes y simbolismos poderosos

[Cheryl]

Wow. I can't rate, because I cannot imagine what young me would have thought of this, nor can I imagine how to share it with children. But I hope it does get shared, for both mirrors and windows.

[YOONJIN HAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a story that a girl goes home and spends her daily life with a huge lion. It symbolizes a lion as her father and illustrates her desires to spend time with her father. It is awarded by the American Library Association. I highly recommend this book for students and a teacher in the early childhood program because it can be used when teaching family values to children, especially for days associated with family or parents.

[Melissa Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camino a casa es un libro hermoso, que cada vez que lo leo me saca lágrimas.

Un relato sobre el trayecto que hace una niña hacia su hogar con un final inesperado.

[Sunah Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

The girl asks a lion to accompany her when she goes to school, picks up her brother in the nursery, and waits for her mom to come back home from the work. The imaginary friend, the lion, keeps walking next to her. The lion would return to the hill which is the girl and the lion's meeting place, but the lion would be there for the girl when she needs him.
This picture book communicates with readers through few and simple texts with rich illustrations. First of all, the lion is portrayed as a huge animal than a normal and real-life sized one. Other people at a school and on the streets are afraid of the animal, but the lion is kind to the girl who asks the lion to accompany with her. For instance, the lion lets her ride on his back and plays with her brother while she's making food. The lion represents a friend she could rely on because the last page of the illustrations show a picture of her family with a father who is not at home anymore. Next to the picture frame, the Spanish word, desaparecido, of the article on the newspaper alludes the disappearance of her father. Another clue of the girls’ longing for her father as well as representing a symbol of the lion is the yellow flower. When the girl asks the lion to walk with her on the first page of the book, she hands over a yellow flower to the lion. The same flower is placed on the table next to the family picture. Illustrations of this picture book also convey the environments of her family. Even though the text clearly indicates that her mother “gets home from the factory”, the overall illustrations implicate her neighborhood by illustrating a cracked school and nursery building, wires on the utility poles, and patched blankets. The timing of the father’s disappearance also coincides with the season the story is told. Several images of calendars show that the season is summer, and the picture frame also addresses the family picture was taken during the summer.
Like this, illustrations in this book imply a lot of backgrounds to readers to guess and imagine untold stories. Authors might not put some hints and metaphors in their books because readers’ responses must be diverse. However, it is interesting to think about authors’ intentions in texts and illustrations by using cues.

[Ms. Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful little book that's perfect for story time or one-on-one reading time. It's one of many lovely books that's socially conscious and offers a tale of a difficult childhood full of too many responsibilities.

I didn't find it as poetic poetic and moving as other books in this genre but I loved its simplicity. It can be difficult to find books with such a generous picture to words ratio. It's typically about one sentence per page which is great for groups or younger children (and older children can follow the images for a more detailed story).

My only qualm is that something about the layout fell a bit flat for me. With so little text I'd like to see it interact more with the images. The overall placement of the text moves and it's sometimes black and sometimes white against darker images but I wanted more from the images and layout. Some pages, particularly those at the beginning and end of the book, felt a bit boring and dated with just a line of text and a simple image on glossy paper. Overall, quite a lovely book.