Pilgrim Codex
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Duncan Tonatiuh and Yuyi Morales' Dreamers, a one-of-a-kind picture book about one immigrant family's journey north, illustrated in the vein of an ancient codex and drawing upon Mesoamerican mythology.
We, the Vargas Ramírez family, come from a faraway place north of Tenochtitlan called Iztapalapa, Land of Clay Upon Water. A land surrounded by cars and dry grass; a place where the pieces of our small world were scattered. For some time we lived there, but then one day my father heard a beautiful birdsong that rose up and appeared to say tihui, tihui, tihui: let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. And so we gathered up our friends who made up that small world and decided to head north, for the other side, and a better life.
Together the Boy and his family will journey from the Land of the Frogs to The Place Where Feet Cry to the River Where the Waters Tangle, fleeing Gunmen and braving Coyotes and plunging darknesses as black as an obsidian forest. Originally published in Mexico, Pilgrim Codex (Códice peregrino) captures through the eyes of a child one family's part in the ever-changing and fleeting story of the brave migrant warriors who search for a better place to live.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Incorporating facets of Mesoamerican mythology, Mansour (El Enmascarado De Lata/The Man With the Tin Mask) and Valtierra, making a picture book debut, chronicle the Vargas Ramírez family's arduous journey from a place north of Tenochtitlán—"Iztapalapa, Land of Clay upon Water"—to the U.S. Digitized illustrations that draw on the Boturini Codex and Mixtec Codices mix present-day images (streetlights, a taxi) with bright-hued iconography and reiterative motifs. The small group of friends and family "walked and took bus after bus after bus," and travel by van, working to avoid gunmen, coyotes, snakes, and more. An unnamed boy narrates in extensive prose, chronicling the brutal trip, the struggles of fellow travelers, the group's reliance on each other and their faith, and his own questions about their destination ("What do burgers taste like over there? Does every house have a pool?"). Together, word and image work richly together to describe a suspenseful journey of "many things, terrible and magnificent," that ends with "eyes thirst for tomorrows." Publishes simultaneously in Spanish. An author's note and glossary conclude. Ages 3–8.
