Description
Balam and Lluvia are siblings who catch fireflies, bid farewell to their pet fish in the bathroom, and wait for Ratón Pérez to collect their teeth.
In Balam and Lluvia’s House, the secret tastes and sounds of the everyday are waiting to be found. From the smell of crushed laurel leaves to the whispers of the peach tree in their back garden, every day is a day of discovery. Full of lively and reflective poems, this book invites the reader to run alongside Balam and Lluvia captivated by the world that surrounds them.
Praise for Balam and Lluvia’s House
“A real feast for the senses and balm for the soul’ – Juliette Saumande, The Irish Independent
“It is a beautifully written, beautifully translated book. It’s strange, it’s charming, and shows all at once how similar, but also how different, lives can be for children all around the world.” – CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award Judges
“A sweet reflection on the playfulness and richness in everyday life.” – Selected for Five Books’ Best Books of 2023
“A marvellous children’s book… that evoked in me the colours and smells of my childhood in Buenos Aires, and my abuela’s (grandmother’s) house… Highly recommended for young readers interested in learning about Latin America, its people and stories” – Leo Boix, Morning Star
“‘The Patio’ could be the start of a dreamy wonder about the meaning of words and how language can make us feel. I can imagine a class outdoors, smelling herbs and flowers, as they discover “all those beautiful words / have a taste / that we never forget.” – Liz Berry, Forward Prize-winning poet and CLiPPA Judge
“The poems range from thought-provoking to heartfelt to funny. Despite originating on the other side of the world to British readers, children will find many similarities between their own lives and Balam and Lluvia’s lives.” – Imogen Maund, Just Imagine
About the translator
Lawrence Schimel (New York City, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has published over 130 books in a wide range of genres. His picture books have won a Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a White Raven from the International Youth Library in Munich, and have been chosen by IBBY for Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities (three times), among other honors. His writings have been translated into over fifty languages, including Icelandic, Maltese, Farsi, Kurdish, Basque, Luxembourgish, Changana, Romansch, and Japanese. In addition to his own writing, he is a prolific literary translator, primarily into English and into Spanish, who has published over 150 books.
His translations into English have won a Batchelder Honor from the American Library Association, a PEN Translates Award from English PEN (three times), a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship (with Layla Benitez-James), and was Highly Commended in the CLiPPA, among other honors. He started the Spain chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and illustrators and served as its Regional Advisor for five years. He also coordinated the International SCBWI Conference in Madrid and the first two SCBWI-Bologna Book Fair conferences. He lives in Madrid, Spain.
About the illustrator
Yolanda Mosquera lives and works in the north of Spain near the countryside.
She graduated from the University of the Basque Country college of Fine Arts and majored in graphic design, and has a postgraduate degree in illustration for children’s books and publications EINA, University Center of Design and Art of Barcelona (2008). She has worked as a graphic designer and illustrator, taught art and illustration and hosted creative workshops in Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Since 2011, she has illustrated numerous books from Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay and Italy, including ‘The Silence of Water’ by Nobel prize-winning author José Saramago, translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa (Seven Stories Press, 2023), the Spanish translation of Guy de Maupassant’s classic ‘Little Louise Roque’, and ‘Llévame’ by Mercedes Calvo. Her work has been exhibited in Portugal, Korea, China, Italy, USA, Mexico, and most recently at the Bratislava Biennale of Illustration.
She obtained an honorable mention in the Sharjah Exhibition for Children’s Books Illustrations Third Edition (UAE, 2014) and was awarded the Euskadi Prize for Literary Illustration (2018), one of the Basque Country’s most prestigious accolades.
