Forthcoming later this month from Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers, Colorful Mondays: A Bookmobile Spreads Hope in Honduras is a vibrant and uplifting picture book based on the real-life work of Asociación Compartir, a nonprofit dedicated to education and community development. Supported by JustWorld International, Asociación Compartir in particular provides bookmobile service (hence the book’s title) to communities on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital city. Part of Eerdman’s recently announced Stories from Latin America Series, this book is a tender celebration of the power of books, libraries and librarians, and the stories they bring. As a librarian myself, you know I’m here for all of this.

Luis is a young boy living in Villa Nueva, Honduras. Named by a Honduran newspaper as “the most dangerous community of the capital,” in Villa Nueva “happy stories mix with sad ones.” Here the illustrations are presented in muted blues, purples and greys, while Luis himself is in bright and happy yellows, oranges, and greens. Luis loves happy stories, and wherever he finds them, he shares them, spreading joy and color to his family and friends.

Every Monday brings new stories for Luis to share, because that is the day the bookmobile comes! On the truck are Nelson and Gerson, two librarians. As they approach, they honk the truck’s horn in a familiar rhythm that gives rise to the name for its story time: the Hour of the Chochororochochochó! (Luis finds that word hard to say, and he is not wrong!)

Luis and his classmates meet the bookmobile in a nearby soccer field and immediately get to work: setting up tables, chairs, even a puppet stage. And of course, books. The joy of stories, books, and puppets is represented by the now vibrantly colored illustrations. There are rainbow swirls of color weaving in and out of the characters on the page as they take advantage of all the bookmobile offers, including a snack!

Luis is full of color and light as he heads home to share stories with his cousins, the neighborhood barber, and more. The illustrations are now a veritable rainbow saturating and suffusing the pages, and Luis “goes to bed happy, ready to dream marvelous dreams.”

The illustrations by Venezuelan born Rosana Faría and Brazilian native Carla Tabora of Tiliabooks are of course a big draw here. The reader is met with vibrant colors from even before the first page; the endpapers in shades of green with sketches of dolphins, parrots, turtles, and frogs are bound to appeal to even the youngest children.

While another reviewer took issue with the illustrators’ use of contrasting monochromatic hues and rainbow colors to depict the community of Villa Nueva and the work of bookmobile, respectively, as “flattening” and simplistic, I would beg to differ. The text is written by Nelson Rodríguez—yes, one of the very same librarians from the book!—and Leonardo Agustín Montes, a children’s bookseller from Honduras. Rodríguez’s first-hand experience of Asociación Compartir’s bookmobile lends veracity to this book. The illustrations and the text work hand in hand to tell a Latin American story from a Latin American perspective, one specifically from Central America, which we rarely see in English language children’s books.

While not from Tegucigalpa, Rodríguez is indeed from Honduras, and is well within his rights to speak to his experience of his country and the community with which he works. This video shows Rodríguez and the work of the bookmobile in action. Singing, repetition, routine, and an engaging picture book: this is a great example of an interactive story time. Books, stories, and libraries are vital. They can change everything, including our surroundings.

Translated by the ever prolific Lawrence Schimel, the richer and wordier text of this book is ideal for children in elementary or primary school. In the classroom, this book can be used in units about storytelling, writing (in the book, Luis shows Nelson a story he wrote to give a new ending to a book from the previous week), or to explore all kinds of mobile libraries around the world. On the Eerdlings blog from the publisher, one can also download an activity kit with puzzles and storytelling activities.

If you are interested in expanding your library’s collection of books about libraries, librarians, or community helpers, as well as adding more books from Latin America, Colorful Mondays is an ideal purchase.

Title:  Colorful Mondays: A Bookmobile Spreads Hope in Honduras

Written by Nelson Rodríguez and Leonardo Agustín Montes

Illustrated by Rosana Faría and Carla Tabora

Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2023

Originally published as Lunes de colores, 2021, Editorial Juventud

ISBN: 978-0-8028-5616-6

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Klem-Marí Cajigas has been with Nashville Public Library since 2012, after more than a decade of academic training in Religious Studies and Ministry. As the Family Literacy Coordinator for Bringing Books to Life!, Nashville Public Library’s award-winning early literacy outreach program, she delivers family literacy workshops to a diverse range of local communities. In recognition of her work, she was named a 2021 Library Journal “Mover and Shaker.” Born in Puerto Rico, Klem-Marí is bilingual, bicultural, and proudly Boricua.