Eloísa's Musical Window

by Margarita Engle, John Parra (Illustrator)

Overview

Inspired by stories from her mother’s childhood, acclaimed author Margarita Engle and award-winning artist John Parra have crafted a vibrant picture book about a young girl and her family who find joy in the music flowing from outside their window.

Eloísa loves music, but with her family too poor to buy a radio, she can only hear it when rhythms and melodies drift through her open window. Birds and cats raise their voices in daily choruses, and songs from a neighbor’s radio travel through the air. On the street below, children shake maracas and beat a steady rhythm on bongo drums and a lute, a cowbell, and un güiro round out the orchestra.

The sounds of her neighborhood are music enough for Eloísa, but when Mamá gets sick and the family can’t afford medicine, can la música soothe her the way it’s always comforted Eloísa?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665935296
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/27/2024
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Margarita Engle is the Cuban American author of many books including the verse novels Rima’s Rebellion; Your Heart, My Sky; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; The Lightning Dreamer; and Wild Dreamers, a Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Honor book. Her verse memoirs include Soaring Earth and Enchanted Air, which received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture books include Drum Dream Girl, Dancing Hands, and The Flying Girl. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.

John Parra is an award-winning illustrator, designer, author, and educator. For his children’s illustration work he has received three American Library Association Pura Belpré Honors. His books include Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos, written by Monica Brown, which earned a New York Times Best Illustrated Book designation; Green Is a Chile Pepper, written by Roseanne Thong, which received the Américas Book Award; Spanish Is the Language of My Family, written by Michael Genhart, which received seven starred reviews and the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award; Hey, Wall, written by Susan Verde; The Power of Her Pen, written by Lesa Cline-Ransome; and his authorial debut Growing an Artist, which was the recipient of the Christopher Award and the Américas Award. Learn more at JohnParraArt.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ “Drawing from her mother’s childhood stories, Engle tells a tale of everyday inspiration, propelled by a lilting text that reverberates. . . . A harmonious triumph.

Kirkus Reviews

Focusing on music’s power to heal and uplift . . . young Eloísa finds comfort in music as her mother tries to recover from a serious illness . . . Parra’s signature-style illustrations portray the child sitting at a window with green bars as the community sweetens a difficult time, uplifting Eloísa and her family—and eventually giving way to unfettered connection outside the home.

Publishers Weekly

Engle’s lyrical text describes noises from the neighborhood animals and the traditional Cuban instruments the musicians play. Parra’s distinctive hand-painted and digitally collaged art features characters with different skin tones and uses a pleasantly washed-out palette for backgrounds.

Horn Book

Based on family stories that Engle’s mother once shared about her childhood in Cuba, this tale celebrates the power of music, family, and community. . . .Parra’s digitally enhanced acrylic paintings have the directness, the warmth, and narrative quality of folk art, while placing the story within a distinctive setting. A heartening picture book.

Booklist

The illustrations in acrylic and digital media evoke a loving family and the vitality of a community with a palette of aqua, greens, and muted red . . . A gentle look at one family’s community and culture.

School Library Journal

★ 2024-05-04
A child hears music in every sound, however ordinary.

Eloísa loves music, but her family can’t afford a radio. So she sits by the window, “listening to la música that floated in from a neighbor’s house.” Other sounds surround Eloísa. Parrots and doves share “nature’s gentle serenades,” cats and dogs meow and bark, el lechero’s cow clip-clops, and a boy on a horse tap-taps past the window as she and her brother, Pepe, watch. It’s enough to make Eloísa run outside and dance—but she’s too shy. Outgoing Mamá would be dancing, but alas, she’s sick in bed with a fever; Papá goes in search of medicine. One sunny day, the neighborhood children gather near Eloísa’s window, maracas, claves, drums, and more in hand to create música. Heartened by the festive sounds, a recuperated Mamá rises from bed, aided by Eloísa, Papá, and Pepe, as music beckons from the street. Drawing from her mother’s childhood stories, Engle tells a tale of everyday inspiration, propelled by a lilting text that reverberates. Parra’s acrylic paint artwork uses warm colors and earth-toned landscapes to depict a Cuban neighborhood brimming with smiling, brown-skinned faces. An appended catalog succinctly traces the origins of Cuban musical instruments.

A harmonious triumph. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews