Antonio Ramirez, pictures by Domi,
Napi Goes to the Mountain
Groundwood Books, 2006.

Rating: A*

Napi’s father, a poor Mazatec Indian farmer, did not come home last night. A search is being organized to look for him. Napi and her little brother set off to find him on their own. The turtles in the river carry the children’s raft on their backs, the children are transformed into deer and they are given advice by other animals in the forest. Eventually, an armadillo tells them that their father has returned safely and the children return home to find the village celebrating.

The illustrations in this very imaginative book are beautiful watercolours in monochromatic brown with the focal characters in rainbow colours. The illustrations reflect the dream-like quality of the text as we are never sure whether Napi’s journey is a dream or not. However, there is a lot of assumed background knowledge to this story which makes in confusing. For example, although the cataloguing information indicates that the characters are Mazatec Indians, the text does not mention it until the end where we are given a glossary of Mazatec words. The book would be a good starting point for a discussion about landless farmers in Mexico, but in isolation, it is difficult to follow.

Thematic Links: Mexico; Mazatec Indians

Heather Empey
Vol. 12, number 3
February 2007

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.