UNA NUEVA CIUDAD, UN NUEVO HOGAR / A NEW CITY, A NEW HOME

By Elías David

Illustrations by Claudia Delgadillo

ISBN: 978-1-55885-999-9

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 32

Imprint: Piñata Books

A boy’s loving parents help him deal with a big move in this sweet bilingual picture book.

One day, a young boy learns he and his parents are moving all the way from Mexico to Texas. His dad tells him there are lots of fun things to do in Houston, like visiting the Museum of Natural Science and the Space Center. But that night he has nightmares about dinosaurs trampling the city and extraterrestrials landing in backyards and schools. He doesn’t want to move away from his grandparents! The next morning, his father reassures him that they can keep in touch with family and friends via video calls. Moving away doesn’t mean they’ll never see each other again!

Soon the family has packed its belongings and starts the long drive. They make their way through the never-ending line of cars at the international bridge, sing songs while crossing the Texas countryside and finally arrive in Houston, where giant buildings light up the night sky. Outside on the balcony of his new home, the boy waves to passing neighbors and realizes: “This city looks like a great adventure that I can’t wait to start!”

This bilingual picture book for children ages 4-8 reunites the author/illustrator team of Elías David and Claudia Delgadillo (Mis días con Papá / Spending Time with Dad) to spotlight loving parents who help their son cope with a scary change: leaving everything familiar behind and moving to a new home in a new city.

Review

“In David’s day-in-the-life debut, a bilingual picture book, a Latinx-cued child narrates a joy-filled day at home with Dad while Mom works at a shipping port. Matching the text’s steady tone, Delgadillo’s watercolors present cozy domestic scenes of the family smiling as they make their way through the day.”—Publishers Weekly

“Bilingual readers will appreciate the ease with which code switching occurs. The author provides a shift in traditional norms of what families can look like while still offering readers comfort in seeing a familiar structure in the day. The soft palette of the illustrations is perfect for the intended audience. VERDICT: This relatable story is a recommended purchase.”—School Library Journal

ELÍAS DAVID, a native of Reynosa, Mexico, is the author of a picture book, Mis días con Papá / Spending Time with Dad (Piñata Books, 2023), and two for adults, Instantes (Alja, 2017) and Una lucidez aturdida (UANL, 2022). He is the associate editor of Suburbano Ediciones (SED), a magazine on culture. He lives with his family in Houston, where he is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing in Spanish at the University of Houston.

CLAUDIA DELGADILLO was born in Mexico City and graduated from UNAM with a degree in graphic communication. She is the illustrator of Mis días con Papá / Spending Time with Dad (Piñata Books, 2023) and she wrote and illustrated Biodiversidad (UNAM, 2011).