Bright Star

Starred review from July 19, 2021
Morales (Dreamers) writes a love song to the land that forms the border between the U.S. and Mexico. She begins not with the people who brave it but with finely executed, digitally enhanced portraits of the wild flora and fauna that live in the desert. A doe guards her newborn fawn as embroidered text reads, “Child, you are awake!” The voice continues, the doe licking her fawn: “You are ALIVE! You are a bright star/ inside our hearts.” When threats loom, “Te amo,” reads the text, as the mother touches her muzzle to her child’s, “breathe in, despacito,/ then gently breathe out./ Lie low.” In a charged moment, animals and insects confront a border wall, their pathways blocked and cacti upended. As animals circle to protect the young deer, reassuring it “you are not alone,” a visual shift links the fragility of the desert’s life to the vulnerability of people stuck on one side of the border—both are at the mercy of oppressive forces, and their fates are intertwined. Yet Morales holds out the hope of a beautiful world, discussed in a lyrically written afterword. Ages 4–8. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary.

Starred review from September 1, 2021

PreS-Gr 3-In an author's note, Morales states that she used "the most beautiful things I could find" to make this book: words in English and Spanish, drawings, paint, wool, and photographed textures. Beauty gleams from the pages in soft, sunrise pink, as a whitetail fawn wakes in a patch of desert plants and explores its environment with its mother. The text addresses a "Child," which may refer to the fawn or to a reader; observers will also notice hummingbirds (whose wings blur as they hover), tortoises, insects, and cacti. In a dramatic spread, the pink shifts from the color of a sunrise to that of a wound, as the fawn and other desert creatures confront the harsh vertical barrier of the border wall, topped with curls of barbed wire and surrounded by pieces of chopped-down cacti. Night falls as does rain; bats emerge and the desert teems with life. In a new dawn, the fawn curls among pink and yellow flowers; on the following page, a brown-skinned girl is in the fawn's place, peering over her shoulder, directly at readers. On the final spread, six people stand or sit, their gazes out and up, under the refrain, "You are a bright star inside our hearts," transforming the art into a message of love and hope that honors children everywhere, especially migrant children. VERDICT Morales shares her love for the borderlands, shows the pain the border wall inflicts, and presents an invitation to learn more. Recommended for all collections.-Jenny Arch, Lilly Lib., Florence, MA

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2021
Morales's (Dreamers, rev. 9/18) latest sensitive and evocative picture book opens with a wide-eyed whitetail fawn curled up in a creosote bush, guilelessly peeking up at the reader. Its mother is close by, and spare, tender language ("Breathe in / then breathe out / hermosa creatura") conveys a loving relationship between the two, as they set out among desert plants and flowers, passing a diversity of inhabitants -- roadrunners, quail, hummingbirds, butterflies -- that represent the ecosystem of the borderland setting. Embroidered text appears in differing sizes and colors emphasizing the words' meanings, from bold exclamations ("!Mira!") to a faint, nestled "Te amo." Slowly, a grayish plume emerges, alerting the creatures to danger, and precipitating the separation of the mother and fawn. As dust envelops the spreads, the threat becomes clear: a border wall. Though never mentioned in the text, the wall's harmful effects on the flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert are illustrated and explained in the author's note. Thoughtfully layered images brimming with detail are given texture and perspective through the use of acrylics, digital painting, and photographic elements. A seamless transition ties in the poignant underlying analogy with the depiction of a group of migrant children whose clothes feature images and patterns of the animals appearing throughout the book. In a final, unfaltering affirmation, the titular message is conveyed once more: "You are a bright star inside our hearts." Concurrently published in Spanish as Lucero. Jessica Agudelo

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from August 1, 2021
Amid the borderlands, a whitetail fawn thrives and survives in Morales' latest seed of hope. "Child, you are awake!" A fawn gazes back at readers, curled up in the desert dirt alongside the cacti and blossoms. "You are alive!" It's a summoning, a reckoning with the wonders--visible and not visible--of life. The opulent artwork thrums with blooms of orange, brown, and green, featuring vibrant images made of digitally altered drawings, photographs, yarn, wool, among other things. The fawn observes and prances, exploring underneath the warm desert sun. It's a celebration. But: "Oh, no! What is that?" Faded gray spikes pierce the frame from behind. "Lie low. We want you safe." The fawn's left alone, crouched close to the earth as gray smoke suffocates the desert air. Soon, the fawn stands before a concrete wall crowned with barbed wire, bellowing among upturned cacti and other creatures unable to move ahead. "Let the world know what you feel!" In English text that holds Spanish within it, Morales meditates on community, imagination, immigration, and the natural world, often pulling from current events and recent societal traumas. Thanks to some awe-inspiring moments and rather startling images, the fawn's journey moves at a dreamy pace, inviting further rereads. A powerful author's note weaves in a visceral sense of urgency. Lucero, an all-Spanish version translated by Eida Del Risco, publishes simultaneously. Utterly beautiful. (further resources) (Picture book. 4-8)

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July 1, 2021
Morales's (Dreamers, rev. 9/18) latest sensitive and evocative picture book opens with a wide-eyed whitetail fawn curled up in a creosote bush, guilelessly peeking up at the reader. Its mother is close by, and spare, tender language ("Breathe in / then breathe out / hermosa creatura") conveys a loving relationship between the two, as they set out among desert plants and flowers, passing a diversity of inhabitants -- roadrunners, quail, hummingbirds, butterflies -- that represent the ecosystem of the borderland setting. Embroidered text appears in differing sizes and colors emphasizing the words' meanings, from bold exclamations ("!Mira!") to a faint, nestled "Te amo." Slowly, a grayish plume emerges, alerting the creatures to danger, and precipitating the separation of the mother and fawn. As dust envelops the spreads, the threat becomes clear: a border wall. Though never mentioned in the text, the wall's harmful effects on the flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert are illustrated and explained in the author's note. Thoughtfully layered images brimming with detail are given texture and perspective through the use of acrylics, digital painting, and photographic elements. A seamless transition ties in the poignant underlying analogy with the depiction of a group of migrant children whose clothes feature images and patterns of the animals appearing throughout the book. In a final, unfaltering affirmation, the titular message is conveyed once more: "You are a bright star inside our hearts." Concurrently published in Spanish as Lucero.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)