Francisco X. Alarcón, illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez,
Animal Poems of the Iguazú /Animalario del Iguazú
Children’s Book Press, 2008.

Ages 6+

This book is a love song to the Iguazú rainforest of South America and all the plants and animals it contains. The animals speak for themselves in American Book Award winner Francisco X. Alarcón’s sparse, bilingual poetry just as they do in the native Guaraní tradition. Each species and its place in this magical, threatened environment is celebrated both in words and in the vibrant, textural illustrations of 2008 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honoree Maya Christina Gonzalez.

In the introduction Alarcón explains that he wrote most of the poems in a small green notebook when visiting the majestic waterfalls that lie across the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The intimacy of this process shines through, and Alarcón is able to convey the sense that Iguazú belongs to us all and that we need it perhaps even more than it needs us.

Looking at Gonzalez’s artwork is surely the next best thing to visiting the Iguazú falls themselves. Elaborate paper cut-outs bring depth and atmosphere to the background and to human beings:“to show that we are all made up of the same materials,” Gonzalez says.  On the other hand, the animals are richly painted “to bring special attention to my animal friends, who are the focus of these poems.”

However, this author/illustrator team does more than paint a pretty picture. In the wide variety of subjects represented, such as the nest of birds decrying the annoying helicopters “carrying humans/who can’t fly/by themselves!” and the ants who remark on people “walking in file/like giant ants/on steel pathways,” clicking digital photos of each other while ignoring “the great/and tiny wonders/all around them,” we hear the many voices of the Iguazú and are compelled to care. 

In the introduction, Alarcón explains that many of the species of the Iguazú are threatened and that a proposal for a 1.4 million-hectare tri-national green corridor for the Paranaense rainforest is under consideration. The final page of the book tells readers what they can do to help, no matter where they are, because “for all of us/ wild animals/ and plants of the rainforest/ there are no limits/ only one Earth/ without borders.”

Abigail Sawyer
September, 2008