AUTHOR: Alba de Evan, Javier Domínguez and David Lorenzo
PUBLISHER: Antela Editorial
GENRE: Children’s Literature
READER’S NAME: Isabel Domínguez Seoane
DATE: May 18, 2022
Fronteiras de Papel has many positive elements to be considered for a possible recommendation. One of them is the concept behind the children's book: the borderland made out of paper concept. This is a very relevant reality in the United States and much more so after the Trump administration which, precisely, made the bureaucracy for immigrants much more difficult. For this reason, I think the theme and, above all, the title are very attractive, which can help with sales: “woke” consumers would easily feel attracted by this title.
Also, the U.S. publishing market is making great efforts to highlight the diversity of the United States, so the female character of color presents a voice that readers and consumers of culture actively seek out (think of the success of the movie Encanto). This is reinforced in the text by the fact that it is the girl who tells her story in retrospect in front of the entire class at her new school. By the way, this argumental choice closes the story nicely.
Finally, the name of the place they travel to, Utopía, is a good choice because it is a universal name so that any reader can extrapolate this story to other closer realities. In addition, the positive note by choosing Utopia fits perfectly the tone of children’s literature.
On the other hand, precisely this choice highlights one of the drawbacks of this book and that is that it is too general and does not offer information about the context of the protagonist
family, which can reinforce the idea that families of color always struggle and activate a paternalistic reading. The reader can easily wonder where they are coming from, where they are going, why they are leaving, what jobs the protagonist's father had and what problems he had with them (“Dad looked for work every day but it wasn't easy to keep any of them.”).
In addition, some of the illustrations do not match the text, which can be a bit disconcerting and other texts are not well connected, thus skipping information that, in my opinion, is necessary for a better construction of the story. The idea of paper borders is not well developed and I know the book talks specifically about the challenges of bureaucracy because it is included in a paratext at the beginning of the book but it is not evident in the story.
I would recommend the translation of this text in case there is no other children's book to be considered that addresses this topic (which I think is important and it is worth addressing in translation). By not offering specific elements and not having exceptional literary quality, the question arises as to what gap this text would be filling in the U.S. market. I am not sure the translation is justified even if I think this is a great project and the illustrations are beautiful.
