لا تأكل صغار الضفادع

by Francisco Montaña Ibáñez, مريم خالد (Translator)

Two intertwining stories of Bogotá.

One, a family of five children, left to live on their own.

The other, a girl in an orphanage who will do anything to befriend the mysterious Immortal Boy.

How they weave together will never leave you.

Genres: Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Literary Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Christi Flaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not certain if this book was lost in translation a bit but it just fell flat for me.

I would classify it as a short story moreso than a book and I just kept waiting for something to happen.

I feel like the premise is set up to be a beautiful story of a heartbreaking family story but again it unfortunately fell flat 😔

[Elena Meneses · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me alegro de haber leído este libro de adulta. Es un libro muy triste, que además tiene sus toques de ternura.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars *may change
i'm just throwing a rating around because i took my vaccine after reading this book and it knocked me out so i have no idea what i thought about it

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for the audiobook edition of The Immortal Boy. It’s a sad story, but full of irony and occasionally even humor. Ibañez captures perfectly the essence of children who are forced by circumstance to act as adults, as well as defining the types of adults such children might realistically encounter. The story is set in Bogotá and alternates between a family of 5 abandoned children aged 5 – 13, and a girl aged 9 placed into a boarding school by social services.

The family children, particularly the eldest boy and girl, must make decisions about how to support the family, trying to behave like adults. Like all children, they are emotionally and intellectually unprepared to be adults, to protect themselves and think circumspectly while struggling for food and survival. Their mother died and their father left them, after extracting the harmful and self-serving promise from the eldest son to keep the family together, a job more appropriate for a parent.

Meanwhile, the schoolgirl comes from a loving family, but was put in the school when her mother went to jail (no spoilers here; learning why she’s incarcerated is part of the story’s unfolding). She is focused upon “the immortal boy,” an outcast who frightens off the boys who have roughed her up during her first few days at school. This immortal boy has the same name as the family’s middle brother, but exactly how he came to boarding school isn’t revealed till the end.

After reading the reviews, I dreaded the ending. However, I found it uplifting in a sense. Though left very open, there is a real human connection, which I hadn’t thought possible in the situation. There are some disturbing scenes prior to the end, again reflecting that children do not think like adults.

The audiobook helps with the problem some readers had of keeping straight which character is doing what. Johnny Rey Diaz narrates the family’s story and Ana Daniela Osorio the schoolgirl’s. It does take some focus/rewinding to differentiate between the 3 boys in the family at times. Different vocal intonations add impact to the story, and contrast to the lost/rigidly coping family and the protected/adaptable girl.

A good story if you’re looking for something unusual and appreciate stories with psychological and sociological impact, particularly as regards children on their own in an adult world.

[Caylie Ratzlaff · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 60% - received a physical ARC from the publisher from attending NCTE.

I tried...really hard to like this book. I love that it has the Spanish (original version) included and the diverse characters...but I could not get into the book. At all. There were no indications of the POV shifting. No background building. No character building.

I normally do not DNF books, but I did this one. I don't know if it was a translation mishap or what, but to echo another reviewer: "I'm not sure if it was trouble with following the switching perspectives or something that got lost in translation, but something about the narration that I still can't quite put my finger on made it really hard to connect to or even fully follow the narrative."

I think the book has merit, but I simply could not get into it to truly appreciate the complexities of human life it apparently presents.

[Cielo Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

qué tristeza mi hermano, literalmente sapo difícil de tragar.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I located this book on the website where the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize was announced. This was a link shared on Dr. Quiroa's International Wakelet. I listened to the audiobook of this YA novel, which I accessed on Libby. This title has won the 2022 Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Award for its Spanish-to-English translation. The original Spanish version also won the International Youth Library White Raven Award, which is a distinction given to exceptional and innovative children's and youth books from around the world. This book was a really powerful dual-narrative novel that wove together the lives of two youth in Mexico. The first protagonist is a girl living in a sometimes harsh youth orphanage center. The second protagonist is a boy trying to survive on the streets of Mexico City as an orphan while also caring for his younger siblings. Originally, I thought their lives were occurring simultaneously and that one day they would meet in person; however, I eventually learned I was incorrect. SPOILER ALERT - the girl’s life is directly impacted by the boys, though hers takes place generations later. She realizes while reading his story that his life, defined by tragedy and resilience, carries important lessons. By learning his story, she begins her own healing journey. I would use this book later in middle school or early in high school for exploring deep themes through literature. There are many themes to explore... major ones include poverty, social inequity, the need for human connection and empathy, individual and collective consequences of life choices, and the thin line of mortality. There are a multitude of discussion questions and writing prompts that we could create based on any of these themes. I did give it only 3 stars, because I personally had a hard time understanding how their narratives connected, so I imagine middle-high school students might as well. But maybe I am underestimating them!

[Karalee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Devastating but initially confusing, which took away from the experience -- if the novel had been any longer, I probably wouldn't have finished. There was no good signal between the perspectives shifting so it took half a page or more to figure out who it was and what was happening. It was difficult to get the characters sorted out on my own. I had to look up a summary of the book just to feel confident enough with who the characters are. I assume it was intentionally confusing so the timelines were unclear, but the context was just too open-ended.

Spoiler for connection:

Very 'Ballad of Hollis Brown'-esque.

[nam_nam_libros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terminé de leer este libro hace unos 15 días pero hago esto hasta ahora porque quería tener una visión un tanto más amplia de lo que leí. Es un libro duro y cruel, la manera en la que toca temas complicados y difíciles en tan pocas paginas es muy sorprendente. Hubieron muchos momentos en los que solo quería ayudar de alguna manera y la impotencia que sentía no era buena. El final del libro me sorprendió y me hizo llorar. Vale la pena leerlo, pues te deja un mensaje y tristemente un sentimiento de vacío.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plots and points of view were handled awkwardly. The narrator transitioned randomly within chapters. The two storylines didn't line up until the last ten pages, giving this book a dissonance that bled into focus issues for me as a reader. Clocking in at just under 150 pages, it's a quick read, but at the cost of depth of characters and plot. Hopefully the Spanish reads better. That is one redeeming factor of the book: the Spanish original is included with the English translation.

[Yasmine Iliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only wish it was a bit longer. If I choose to reread it, it will be in the original Spanish instead of the translation (even though the translation was incredible) and maybe not literally on Christmas as it resulted in me crying on Christmas while being with my family in Mexico. It made everything very impactful, though. It might make a great Christmas gift, in hindsight. It’s easily finish-able in less than a day.

[Lisa Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. Great characters. Sad story, and one that has stayed with me.

[Cait Hutsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing and heartbreaking and confusing — but I don’t think it’s meant to be linear or easy to understand. It will stick with you.

[LilianaR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duro, durísimo este libro, pero necesario, la realidad de muchos niños y niñas de Colombia y del mundo, me atrapó y no pude parar. Uff!

[Jerilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't get it.

Okay, so I'm going to put out a lot of spoilers here because, as I try to understand why people call this book unexpectant and mysterious, I can't find anyone actually talking about the ending.

It's not unexpectant or mysterious. If you read the description and have two brain cells to rub together, you can figure out the ending. Maybe not the exact ending, but you can figure out that (*SPOILER ALERT*) The Immortal Boy is the same David from the family and that all the children but him died in a shooting. Who shoots them, and where the tadpoles come in is a mystery, but I wouldn't say those revelations are unexpected. Sad, poignant even, but not a twist.

I keep seeing that the way the two stories intertwine doesn't come together until the end, but that's not true. It's clear that each perapective is the story of David, before and after the tragedy. It is clear that Nina's perspective is about how she is observing a boy her age who is a survivor of trauma.

I kept listening (I had the audio book version) even as I hrew tired of the switching perspectives of the faive children, because I was waiting for my unexpected connection of the two stories. But it never came.

That's not actually a bad thing. I don't need a twist to enjoy a story, and if I had had different expectations I probably would have enjoyed the ending more. However, if I had appropriate expectations I probably wouldn't have finished it.

The ending was anticlimacticic for me, but I think it was a good ending. I enjoyed the characters and I felt invested in the story of the children. It's a good story, and I wonder if something was lost in translation or if the author didn't intend for the connection between the Immortal Boy and David to be a surprise connection.

The only really problem with this story is the switching perspectives. I don't mine the alternating chapters between Nina and the other children, I just wish the author would have stuck with one perspective of the children, maybe Hector. Then we would have had two different stories about David, from different times and different perspectives, and that would have grounded me as the reader. Instead, keeping in mind that there was to be a bit of a "twist" at the end, I was constantly trying to figure out if I missed something.

[Sheila Decosse · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, there is the family: Hector, Maria, Robert, David, Manuelo. Yes, I remember their names because they are distinct characters: irascible, needy, tough, wanting,loving. Left alone by the death of their mother and the 'departure' of their father, they are told by him in his last words, "whatever you do, stick together." They live in a poor section of Bogota, Columbia.
Now, the first confusing thing about this story is; that the author begins the story focusing on a unidentified girl, later called Nina, who is rescued from a beating by neighborhood toughs by an unknown boy.
Well, back to the family. They are in a desperate fight for basic bodily survival; they are starving to death,day by day. When the father left, he rented most of his apartment to a woman, perhaps his mistress and leaves the children one room to live in. They scrabble amongst each other and complain but all that can,work on trying to survive. The oldest, Hector falls in with a neighborhood tough, Julio, a drug dealer, who gives him money. Hector brings money and food home and hopes that he has a way out of poverty and they can continue to eat.
Maria, the oldest girl, works for the woman tenant, who lives in the building and she gets a little food that way.
But then Julio vanishes, the woman tenant finally hints that she does not know where their father is and has no more money or food to give the family. The children are desperate but smart and know that if they apply as a family to Social Services, they will probably be broken up as a family and may be put up for individual adoption. For themselves and ...remembering their father's statement, they decide to stay together.
The situation gets worse and worse; no food, no help ..and there I will end the retell: except to say that the somewhat mysterious girl,Nina, finally unites with David, the youngest boy, who is The Immortal Boy.
This book opens a window into the courage and desperation faced by people suffering from poverty, starvation and abandonment. It is written in an intimate, often lyrical prose, with hints of magical realism. However,the story as written, comes across as a disjointed dual narrative. This confusing plot structure results in reader frustration and requires determination.
However, the story of this family and their interactions and struggles will not leave your mind and heart. That indeed is why I gave three stars. There is a stunning, morally shocking denouement after which the characters of Nina and David finally tie their threads together. This is the best hint of a salvaged life journey of any of these deserted kids, that one can hope for.

[Katie Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

My coworker-friend and I got really excited about this book because it's our only bilingual YA book in the Spanish collection. It had mixed reviews, but she took a chance at ordering it since it is so hard to find bilingual books for older readers. I read it in both English and Spanish...and it was interesting.

It definitely had potential. It centers on a family of five children in Colombia who are living in poverty after- for all intents and purposes- becoming orphaned. This is the kind of book that truly opens your eyes to the inhumane circumstances many children throughout the world are living under and the horrific choices they are forced to make as a result. The children struggle with the battle between what must one do to survive and what is ethical.

However, the writing left much to be desired. It was told in two narratives, each with its own timeline, and the constant switch between perspectives was very confusing. The author left out a lot of key details and made the assumption that the reader would fill in the blanks with their own inferences. I read several reviews that wondered if there was something lost in translation, and while it is always a different experience reading a text in another language, the Spanish version did not provide any more clues than the English text did.

There were some weird elements. I think the author purposely didn't give away the use of the two timelines until the very end in order to set up the ending in a much more powerful way. It definitely took me by surprise and left me reeling for a few days. But tadpoles??! Really? And Nina's incessance at becoming friends with David that ultimately led to some creepy stalker-like behavior?! And the tadpoles?!

We were talking about it in the staff room at the library the morning after I finished reading because it struck me as so odd, and I actually have to say that following our conversation I might bump up my rating to 3 stars. Gross and bizarre as the tadpoles were, if you take the time to really go deep with the messages of the book, you realize that they were a powerful symbol of trauma and survivor's guilt. It was representative of the way a child might process a major tragedy. If you make the leap to connect the dots, it does have a powerful theme. I just wish it had been written better!

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Bogotá, five children live on their own, trying to provide for themselves in the absence of their father, if merely survive. At an orphanage, a girl is entranced by the immortal boy. This story is told from the perspectives of children, at the edge of understanding the harshness of the world, and being unaware of just how consequences happen.

This story was short but not effective. Like many other reviewers, I think something may have been lost in the english translation; the conclusion hints at something vaguely dark that may have had more of an effect with different storytelling. I listened to the audiobook, which, despite separate narrators for the different character perspectives, I feel didn't do me any favours, story wise--I did manage to get my hands on a physical ARC as well, and might take a try at the spanish language manuscript (included in the same volume) at a later date.

Audiobook accessed through the libro.fm bookseller program, via my place of work, Oxford Exchange bookstore in Tampa, FL.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to DreamScape Media and Libro.fm for an Advanced Listener Copy of this book.

It is always difficult for me to give less than favorable reviews, but this book was missing something for me. It is a haunting and heartbreaking story of 5 siblings who have been left to fend for themselves, and how their story overlaps with that of a girl in an orphanage. The problem for me was that the perspectives of the narrator changed quickly (told in 1st and 3rd person), and was not always obvious, making it difficult to follow at times. The author has a unique and powerful storytelling ability however, and so I am rounding my 2.5 up to a 3.

[Global Literature in Libraries Initiative]

What initially makes The Immortal Boy, written by Colombian author Francisco Montaña Ibáñez, stand out from other YA novels is its innovative dual language format. Published this year by Levine Querido, the book can be read in English or in Spanish, depending on how one holds the book. On one side, the reader can read the English language translation by David Bowles; turn the book upside down, and there is the original Spanish text. But what stays with you, long after reading the book, is the story inside. This one will haunt you....

------------------------------
To read the full review, visit our website:
https://glli-us.org/2021/08/11/worldk...

[Alex Nonymous · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Immortal Boy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not entirely sure why I didn't love this because in theory, I did. I love unique, human focused stories. I theoretically loved the plot. I'm not sure if it was trouble with following the switching perspectives or something that got lost in translation, but something about the narration that I still can't quite put my finger on made it really hard to connect to or even fully follow the narrative.

[Nadia Reyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I can say is that if you are able to read it in Spanish, please do so!!! It makes MUCH more sense! I started it in English, but I found the translation to be very off and hard to connect with, especially when trying to translate from Spanish spoken in Colombia. Once I found myself switching back in forth in between languages too often, I decided to start it over solely in Spanish. Worth it.

A story about poverty, sacrifice, family and abandonment. Not an easy book to finish, but if you stick with it, it will leave an impact.

[Hilary]

I don't really know what to think of this book.

A group of five siblings, aged 13 and under, struggle to survive after their father left (though they believe he is coming back?) and their mother died. Alternate chapters are told from Nina's perspective, a young teen who was recently placed into an orphanage.

I don't think I was paying close enough attention throughout this short (176 pages) book because I'm pretty sure I misunderstood the timeline.

The ending really threw me for a loop.

[Izzys_Internet_Bookshelf · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5

I was excited to read this book for two reasons, one because it was short and 2, because the plot sounded interesting. Thank God it was a short book though because the whole time I was reading it the characters didn't feel.. real? the author didn't dig into any of the characters or what was really doing on and I felt like I was watching a tv show that I randomly selected on tv where it was in the middle of the plot and the ending didn't make any sense

[Gage Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. I thought that some of the characters didn't have any real significance. I also thought that many of the plot points were handled in weird awkward ways. This book was a struggle to finish, and I would not recommend this book to anyone. One scene that I thought was written poorly is, "I watched him swallow a tadpole, it made my skin crawl." (page 234). I thought the story line was very hard to follow, and it made me want to put the book down and read something else.

[Mae B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story follows 5 siblings desperate to stay together and afloat after losing both parents. It also tells the tale of a little girl who falls for a little boy everyone says holds a secret. The story is eye opening, heartbreaking and is skillfully told. I was lured in by the immortality aspect and found myself aching for the tragic situation the children had to endure. This is a read that will indeed remain in your thoughts.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the Publisher for the ARC.

[Jan Raspen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not exactly sure about this book. I think I might have to actually read it instead of listening to it to really have an opinion. But from the comments from other readers, it seems to be a mixed bag of reviews. The end certainly packed a punch, but I'm not sure there was quite the setup for it, so it landed a little flat.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would consider this book a short story. I feel like the author was leading the plot up to something suspenseful and fell short. I do think the author did a great job showing how many children are forced to become adults and adapt to their circumstances. Unfortunately for this family they do not make it out of the life their parents left them with.

[Kellyanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sort of get where this was going — doesn’t make it any less sad or gross. I cannot read it in its original Spanish (but it’s good that the copy I borrowed is a dual language edition), but I think there was symbolism that went right over my head. This was also shorter than expected. 2.5/5 rounded up.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I literally read this less than 24 hrs ago and I can hardly remember how it ended or what was the point of everything. I had hoped for some exploration of Colombian culture or something, but of there was, I was too confused to recognize it. I had a hard time understanding much of what was going on with this one.