Elisa Amado, illustrated by Alfonso Ruano,
Tricycle
Groundwood Books, 2007.

Ages 6-9

Elisa Amado, a Guatemalan who now lives in Toronto, is a translator as well as children’s book author (of Barrilete: A Kite for the Day of the Dead and Cousins). In her latest book, Tricycle, the political tensions and class consciousness of a dark adult world impinge on the innocence of childhood and its idyllic relationship with nature. Alfonso Ruano's (The Composition) beautiful illustrations evoke the complex emotional tone of Amado's spare, striking text.

The story begins in a beautiful, peaceful world of thick green hedges and bare feet, a volcano on the horizon. Perched in a pine tree, a little girl watches her dog and the gardener. "On the other side of the hedge are the shacks where Rosario, Chepe and Juanita live. I can see their mother making tortillas in the doorway. We buy her tortillas for lunch every day." The children sometimes meet in the hedge and play together there, but tension begins to build in the story from the word "shacks".

The volcano can look scary; the hedge, prickly and dark. Margarita’s tricycle is in that hedge, although her mother has warned her to bring her toys inside. From her perch in the tree, she sees Rosario and Chepe "push my tricycle over to their house and hide it under a box." Margarita’s stomach feels funny, but she remains silent. At lunch, she hears her mother’s visitors speak of "thieves" that "should be shot." Later Margarita tells her mother that "some men with guns" took her tricycle but she doesn’t care because she’s too old for it anyway. Her mother hugs her and replies, "Don’t worry. No one is going to get shot." Margarita feels better then, and goes outside, but "I don’t think I feel like climbing the tree," the story ends, "so I go over and watch Timoteo plant some flowers."

Large issues are raised in this disarming book: ambiguity of relative wealth and poverty, truth-telling and lying, empathy with wrongdoers. It’s what is not said that tells the story. Young children may need some help in articulating the feelings this powerful and sensitive story evokes.

Charlotte Richardson
September 2007