The Mango Tree (La mata de mango)
A Picture Book
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From internationally renowned, award-winning artist Edel Rodriguez comes The Mango Tree, an enchanting wordless picture book and a moving, fantastical take on his childhood experience as an immigrant.
In a quiet village on a small island, two boys spend their days in a mango tree. High above the rest of the world, they play, take naps in the shade, and eat mangoes together. But after a huge storm sweeps one boy out into unknown waters, he finds himself alone in a strange new land, where everything is different and unfamiliar.
In this poignant, personal story, internationally celebrated Cuban American artist Edel Rodriguez brings to life his childhood experience as an immigrant to the US. Taking readers on a fantastical journey into the unknown, The Mango Tree (La mata de mango) is a tale of new experiences, the bonds that connect us to home, and a friendship that endures across time and borders.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wielding visual power in this wordless picture book, Rodriguez renders a story of a childhood friendship enacted in the branches of a mango tree. Across a wide ocean landscape, an island rises dominated by the tree. Subsequent images close in on a forest and village, and then the tree itself, planted in a container, in which two children—one brown-skinned, one pale-skinned—spend their days. From flying kites to maintaining a dovecote, the two are inseparable, until a storm carries one—clinging to the contained mango tree—away to a new land. There, amid blue-skinned human figures, the child plants the lone mango left on the branches. Bold graphic images, created with a combination of oil-based printing inks, sumi ink, and digital media, employ a tightly controlled palette and woodblock textures. An author's note, provided in both English and Spanish, concludes. Ages 4–8.
