Monday, January 3, 2022

Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti - ADVISABLE

Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti, 293 pages. Alfred A. Knopf (Random House Children’s Books), 2021. $17.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Life and Death get to play their game, la Lotería, once a year. This time, Clara (11yo) has been chosen as the object of their game. With each card, her life progresses towards the unknown, and not even the players know what fate holds for Clara.

Valenti’s writing is vibrant, just as visually appealing as Sanmar’s illustrations. As readers follow Life, Death, Clara, and other characters, our eyes are opened to details of Mexican culture and mythology. Sometimes the frequent use of Spanish words and phrases was distracting, but I mostly found the use of Spanish to be like an invitation to become part of Clara’s world.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

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