Johnny, the Sea, and Me

I saw Johnny, the Sea, and Me by Melba Escobar on the ALA youth media awards this year as a Batchelder Honor book (an outstanding children's book that originated in a country outside of the US and a language other than English), so I got it from the library. The book description says, "Pedro is dealing with a lot for a ten-year-old kid, both at school and at home. So he's overjoyed when his mom surprises him with a trip to see the ocean—an experience he's been dreaming about for a long time! Maybe this trip will make everything better. Maybe it will make his dad come back to him and his mom. Maybe he will stop being bullied at school, once he's seen the ocean! But things go wrong right from the start between Pedro and his mom, and all seems lost, until Pedro is found and taken in by a gruff old sea dog who has something magical about him."

This was a fun read. It made me smile and chuckle and had great illustrations. It was a pretty short chapter book (I read it in under an hour), and I think it'd be a fun read aloud with my kids. I particularly enjoyed the long story told by the parrot, Victoria. The book was originally written in Spanish, but I feel like the translator did a great job because the book seemed to have a great voice.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)