HOW ARE YOU? / ¿CÓMO ESTÁS?

Sometimes all it takes to make a friend is to say “Welcome! ¡Bienvenida!”

First introduced to this friendly pair of giraffes—one Spanish-speaking, the other Anglophone—in How Do You Say? / ¿Cómo se dice? (2016), readers now find them greeting an ostrich. After the initial “Welcome! ¡Bienvenida!” they move on to, “¿Cómo estás? How are you?”—but the ostrich doesn’t manage a response. “Are you shy? ¿Eres tímida?” they want to know. “No,” it responds, looking a little overwhelmed by their exuberance. Subsequent questions—“Are you hungry?…Are you tired?…Are you scared?…Annoyed?”—are met with the same “No.” Flopping onto their rears in exhaustion, they finally ask, “Then, how are you? ¡¿Entonces, cómo estás?!” Readers might be surprised by the answer: “I’m excited!… / …Because I have new amigos!” It looks like this ostrich is bilingual! Time to celebrate “¿Fiesta? Okay!” The limited text is complemented by illustrations portraying plenty of action. Making use of ample white space, Dominguez keeps the focus on the playful giraffes and their new friend. The dynamic illustrations—created with pencil and tissue paper on illustration board then digitally colorized—depict the three in bold outlines and a limited earth-tone palette.

Here’s hoping these endearing giraffes will continue making plenty of amigos.