Cerca / Close

by Juan Felipe Herrera, Blanca Gómez (Illustrator)

Some things are close -- cerca. Others are far -- lejos. With sweet simplicity, this charming dual-language board book and its companion volume, Lejos/Far, engage young children.

Mi cuarto está cerca de la cocina. My bedroom is close to the kitchen.

As she walks from her kitchen through a daisy-filled yard to the house next door, a little girl notices things that are close to each other -- just as the little boy she goes to visit is close to her.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime, Latinx

14 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Juan Felipe Herrera is the only son of Lucha Quintana and Felipe Emilio Herrera; the three were campesinos living from crop to crop on the roads of the San Joaquín Valley, Southern California and the Salinas Valley. Herrera's experiences as the child of migrant farmers have strongly shaped his work, such as the children's book Calling the Doves, which won the Ezra Jack Keats award in 1997. He is a poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist who draws from real life experiences as well as years of education to inform his work. Community and art has always been part of what has driven Herrera, beginning in the mid-seventies, when he was director of the Centro Cultural de la Raza, an occupied water tank in Balboa Park converted into an arts space for the community.
Herrera’s publications include fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children in the last decade with twenty-one books in total.

Reviews

[Susan Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each page of this bilingual board book presents the Spanish language first, followed by the English translation. The story shows the sequence of what’s close to what as a child goes from her bedroom to her friend’s house.

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this, math concepts for babes!

[Francis S. Poesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for simple concept books and this book, along with its companion book, Lejos / Far, is illustrated simply and beautifully (by Blanca Gómez) to match the simple concepts covered.

[Elizabeth]

Since I was going to read Lejos / Far off of Betsy Bird's strong review, I got Cerca / Close as well. I read them right after each other and was underwhelmed by both.

This book uses the same narrative/illustrative traveling mechanic -- "My bedroom is close to the kitchen." / "The kitchen is close the door." / etc. While Lejos / Far grew on me when I came back to it later, this one feels less compelling. Where the "far" illustrations were easily evocative, I don't get a particular feeling of "closeness" from these.

(The protagonist of Lejos / Far is boy-coded, and this protagonist is girl-coded, and I have some feelings about that gender-mapping onto a story of travel versus a story that includes a mother in a kitchen and an instance of friendship.)

[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This charming board book is written for very young children. The topic covered is distance - the closeness of people, animals, objects to each other. The pages are comprised of a sentence written in Spanish, followed immediately below by the English. The illustrations are very charming and engaging.

In Spanish there are 4 words to indicate distance and by focusing on only one it makes it more accessible and cements the idea.

This book has graphic illustrations, yet it reminds me in substance of the book Push Pull Empty Full ( illustrated with photos). Both books display important concepts for young children in an easy to understand manner that are effective, charming and a fun read.

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this one was really cute, but my 15 month old had other things to do, I guess

[Jude Velazquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mami liked this book more than me.

[Andrés · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, elegant depiction of the concept of "cerca / close," while getting a glimpse into the protagonist's home and surroundings. The book is in both English and Spanish language.

[Story Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I thought I didn’t like this book, but it was only because I had to take big poops. After I took big poops, mamo was able to read to me twice.

[Angela De Groot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bilingual board book exploring items in this little girl’s world as they relate to other items. The daisies are close to . . . Wonderful way to build Spanish language skills while investigating proximity and distance. And I LOVE that ‘the daisies’ are ‘las margaritas’ in Spanish.