El coleccionista de palabras (The Word Collector) by Peter H Reynolds

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Justification

The Word Collector is a lovely story about a young boy, Jerome, who collects words. There is an English and Spanish version, both are equally as lovely and would make an excellent addition to an ESL or foreign language classroom.

Evaluation

Illustrations: The illustrations are bright and colorful, giving an air of joy and wonder to Jerome's story. Especially lovely are the illustrations towards the end where Jerome is sharing his poems with all types of people which feels very inclusive and sends a great message about how we can work to understand others, even without a common language.

Plot: Jerome is a young boy with purple hair and a fascination for words. He collects them all--big and small. As he adds to his collection, he trips and his words go flying everywhere, landing in different combinations that he had not considered before. Soon, he begins sharing the new word combinations and developing poems that he shares with his friends.

Text: The text is presented in a black handwriting type font that is easy to read and usually set against a white or yellow background. The font lends a friendly and personal touch to the story.

Conclusion

This is a sweet story in both English and Spanish and appealed to my inner word nerd. It shows the pursuit of knowledge simply for knowledge sake and makes a great point about how words help us understand and empathize with others.

Citation

Reynolds, P. H., & Lombana, J. P. (2019). El coleccionista de palabras. New York: Scholastic.