Again, Essie? - Jenny Lacika - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Jenny Lacika

ILLUSTRATOR: Teresa Martínez

GENRE: Children's Picture Book

PUBLICATION DATE: May 3, 2022

RATING: 3.5 stars.

Rafael loves his toys and tries his best to keep them safe. But his younger sister Essie always finds the hidden loot and crashes around them. In desperation Rafael decides to build ‘un muro’ – a wall. He finds the perfect location for his new wall, and now has to figure out how to build it. Thus begins a treasure hunt of various cardboard boxes and other things from around the house that could help him. But will this unsteady cardboard wall protect his toys from Essie?

This is a nice and cute story. I loved the moral that shows how Rafael got his sister’s intent completely wrong, and that she wasn’t bent on destroying his toys but only wanted to play with him. I would have loved a bit more of Essie. She seems like a perfectly loveable and naughty little imp!

The book is promoted as having STEM content, with the way spatial skills are involved in Rafael’s arrangement of the household paraphernalia into a steady wall. But I didn’t find the STEM content that strong in this story. It touches upon spatial geometry to some extent with its focus on height and width and item arrangement. But it could have been so much more; this topic was underutilised.

The illustrations are excellent and by far, the best part of the book. The characters and the colours both stand out with their vibrancy. Essie is especially adorable! I must say, the characters are supposed to be Chicanx (Mexican American), but I wouldn’t have guessed this if I hadn’t known this from the blurb.

The language of the book is quite simple and will easily match with early reader levels. But I didn’t understand the purpose of having a few Spanish words in the text. There’s not much of it, and I understand how bilingual people tend to speak in multiple languages at once. (Heck, I’m from India. Some of my verbal content includes 4 languages at once!) But does this work well in an early reader book? I’m not sure. Of course, there’s a glossary at the end, but that’s not the point. Maybe the story could have been written in both languages – Spanish and English, thus catering to a wider audience without any difficulties in comprehension. Throwing in a few Spanish words in a predominantly English narrative isn’t the best way of getting familiar with Spanish or with the idea of bilingual speakers.

There’s supposedly a Math note and activities at the end of the book. As this was missing in my ARC, I can’t comment on its efficacy. But I’m sure it would be a helpful addition to this book.

Overall, the book was good but it lacked a certain something to take it to exceptional. The story and moral are cute, the illustrations are fabulous, but the learning part is limited. If you pick it up as a fun book for kids, you will be more satisfied with it.

My thanks to Charlesbridge ​and NetGalley for the ARC of “Again, Essie?”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book