The Young Teacher and the Great Serpent by Irene Vasco Illustrated by Juan Palomino
4/5
ARC via Netgalley

With picture books, the first thing you’re going to pay attention to are the illustrations, and the illustrations in this are amazingly complementary to the story that is being told. A story about two different cultures attempting to coexist while also being a story of the legend of a great serpent, this story of a teacher going to the Amazon to teach young children shows how no matter where you are in life, or what you think you know, there’s always new things to discover.

Read if you like: folklore, introductions to new cultures

A book about the power of stories. This is about a teacher who goes to the Amazon to teach but like most teachers ends up being taught by the community which in turn influences their curriculum. This story would be best for older children and would require guidance from older readers to interpret the lyrical style. An important book with a topic I have rarely encountered.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

This book seems to start in the middle of the story. It’s about a young teacher who has a new assignment and she’s going to go teach school in the middle of the Amazon. She packs her books and teaching supplies with her and off she goes. But one night the rain is coming and destroys all of her books and the community helps create new ones out of cloth and embroidery. And she realizes that these books are just as important as the books she had used before. The story is nice and interesting however, it is very long.

A pleasant enough reminder that sometimes the older ways are the better – but not really a book I can see the young audience rushing to lap up. It features a teacher given her first assignment, a remote settlement somewhere in the Amazonian region, where she takes herself and – with difficulty – her books, in complete ignorance it seems of things like humidity. It's a different kind of water that does away with them, but the people she was supposed to teach had a better idea all along, based on their own skills and their oral traditions. The artwork is pleasant, as it pretty much all is, but essential? The four years delay between initial publication and this translation nudges you to think otherwise, and I think intended readers could easily take or leave it.

Overall the story was pleasant to read. As an advocate for books, and previously a teacher, I loved the story behind the teacher's library, as well as how her views on legends changed throughout the book. If I could change anything about the book, I would change the illustrations to be more inviting to younger children and follow the story through less abstract images. But, that is a personal preference. Overall, I would recommend this book to others.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.