Swimmers

by María José Ferrada, Mariana Alcántara (Illustrator), Kit Maude (Translator)

Fish dream of becoming Olympic swimmers…Olympic swimmers dream that they’re fish.

It’s a very unlikely dream.

Swimmers uses humor and poetry to show the reader how a page can be a deep, blue sea or an Olympic swimming pool and blurs the line between what is and isn’t possible. Filled with quirky text and amusing illustrations of sturgeons in swimwear and tuna taking the gold, Swimmers merges the worlds of fish and people in this English-language translation of an entirely original book.

About the Publisher

Tapioca Stories, a New York-based publishing house with Latin American soul, introduces young English readers to the finest Latin American children's books, originally written in Spanish and Portuguese.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

Published July 5, 2022

About the author

María José Ferrada is the author of Mexique: A Refugee Story from the Spanish Civil War. She is a recipient of the Municipal Prize of Literature of Santiago, as well as the Academy Award from the Chilean Academy of Language. María currently works as the children's editor of Chilean Memory, a digital resource center of the National Library of Chile.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally written in Spanish, this quirky picture book blurs the line textually and visually between reality and fantasy and imagines that fish dream of swimming in the Olympics while humans imagine themselves being able to swim as efficiently as fish. The illustrations consist of bright, striking colors and interesting compositions that blend the two species at various points even while immersing readers in the training routines and family stories of those ambitious fish. I'm not sure how much I understand of this particular story, but it made me regard swimmers of both types in a very different light. Readers will want to take a second or a third look at some of the images, particularly those on the book's cover with an array of sea-related volumes on a book case, a sketch of a fish with its arms moving through the water, and a human swimmer lying in a bathtub with one arm extended and resting in a goldfish bowl filled with blue water.

[Shannon (That's So Poe) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a surreal, amusing picture book imagining fish that dream of becoming Olympic swimmers. I loved the illustrations and how they showed those wild imaginings, and I loved the gentle humor throughout. Really fantastic book!

[Gotero de Letras · Rating 3 out of 5]

A través de las ilustraciones y el texto se crea una bonita (y divertida) historia en la que los peces sueñan que son nadadores profesionales y viceversa.
Cortito, a ratos difícil, pero sin duda interesante.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful and funny dreamlike book that brings welcome imagination to the picture book genre that has become somewhat cluttered with message-heavy, STEM, STEAM, trendy-topic titles.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is simultaneously so much and so little happening here. The colors are dayglo. The text is ... there. It just keeps going and going. I feel like this is a bit like if Dadaism became a picture book but also perhaps what being on drugs would feel like?

[Leopoldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amo con todo mi corazón a María José Ferrada, y las imágenes de Mariana Alcántara sólo me hacen amarla más.