This picture book is about a little girl in Colombia who has only one book and dreams of more. Luckily, her town is visited one day by the Biblioburro, a traveling library on the backs of two burros named Alfa and Beto (get it, alfabeto? Alphabet?). The bright, colorful, naive-ish Latin American-inspired illustrations are nice to look at. The librarian with the Biblioburro is real; this is based on a true story. I enjoyed this, and it's nice to see a library-related picture book that is from Latin America. Both author and illustrator are latines. ( )

Summary: through the lens of little girl, Ana, describes the story of the anticipation of the town that receive a visit of the Biblioburro.

This story is based on a real-life traveling librarian from Columbia, Luis Soriano. In this story, Ana lives in a small village that does not have a school. She only has one book to read and she cherishes it, reading it over and over. Ana tells stories to her brother and wishes for more books. Soon after a man on a burro comes along with a sign “Biblioburro.” He explains to the children that he is a traveling librarian. He lets the children in the village pick out books and returns every other week to exchange books. I love the author’s note that explains that there are many traveling libraries throughout the world. There are also several Spanish terms used throughout the book and a glossary of the terms can be found under the author’s note. This book won the Christopher Award for Young People and received the International Latino Book Award Honor in 2012.

Ana loves stories but she only has one book that she cherishes and reads so many times that she has it memorized. Ana loves fantastical stories and often makes them up to tell her little brother so that he can fall asleep at night. As she helps her family with chores around their farm, she often imagines stories of enchantment and wishes for more books. One day she hears the clip-clop of burros hooves that carry a man with many books. He's a travelling librarian and he shares the magic of his books with Ana and her neighbors. As Ana grows impatient for his return, she decides to write a story of her own. This is a sweet and inspiring story based on a real life librarian, Luis Soriano Bohoraquez, who travelled through the small villages of Columbia to bring literacy and culture to many people. It is written mostly in English with a smattering of Spanish words that are immersed throughout the text so that their meanings are obvious due to context. ( )

This book was so cute! The little girl who loves books gets surprised with a traveling library on donkeys. I am sure that made their childhood nice in the community.