Grown-Ups
Book Review: The Many-Colored Love/El Amor de Todos Los Colores by Lucía Moreno Velo
“My family’s great,” begins Maite, the little girl who tells the story of The Many-Colored Love. The title clearly refers to the love shared by Maite and her two moms, but Maite also imagines it as a physical presence in their house. It is waves of color, flowing through the hallways and across the pages until it pours out the windows, so all the neighbors can see it and marvel.
It’s not until towards the end of the book that Maite explains what her moms have told her about the many-colored love. It was born when Mami met Mamá, and Maite was born of that love. Mamá is pregnant again, so Maite knows she is going to have a little brother or sister. With her big imagination, Maite imagines the many-colored love as a thousand satin ribbons that wind their way about the house—she follows them, because she wants to be the first to find the new baby.
As Maite tells us about the many-colored love, we learn more about her unique way of viewing the world from the illustrations (by Javier Termenón). The title page shows her with her spy glass and trench coat, which she uses to track down the many-colored love, covering her green-checkered footed pajamas. True to the name of the book, the illustrations are saturated with colors, giving the impression that the many-colored love has painted Maite’s life richly.
Velo originally wrote this bilingual book in Spanish, and Gwyneth Box translated it into English. So in addition to being a beautiful story, it can be a fun way to help English-speaking kids learn Spanish (or vice versa!).
The Many-Colored Love is available at http://www.topka.es/topkabooks/bo_love.php. You can also check out our interview with the author, Lucía Moreno Velo, in this month’s issue.
Author
Assistant Kids section editor Hannah Crawford graduated from Carleton College with a major in English and a concentration in Latin American Studies. Apart from reading, her great love is theater, which is one of the many reasons she is very excited to have recently moved to Minneapolis.
