DREAM FOR THE LAND

During an unassailable drought, a young girl wishes for rain.

The child and her father survey their farm amid the hush of dawn. Spotting hungry critters among the rows of squash, tomatoes, and poblanos, the girl rushes ahead to shoo them away, Pá at her heels. When Pá notices a horned toad, he scoops it up and kisses its wee head. “Eww!” the child replies. “Then you make a wish,” says Pá, “and let them go.” Má laughs, and the three farmers toil through the morning, caring for crops that have withered under the oppressive might of a long drought. The land was once “as green as jewels,” back when Great-Grandpa tilled it; it was nourished “by a cobalt river” that’s since vanished. As Má hopes for rain clouds, Pá hangs his head. The girl, however, moves forward, searching for a horned toad’s much-needed magic. She returns to her parents with a wish for an earth that could exist free from those who seek to exploit it. Kemp’s pensive, elegiac tale unpacks the hard-earned minutiae of a farming family’s everyday lives, as well as the encroaching consequences of human-fueled climate change, told from a young girl’s compelling, vivid perspective. Each line mounts to a gradual call to action by the closing spread. Espinosa’s striking pencil-etched artwork portrays arid earth, parched skies, and resilient brown-skinned people. The farming family is cued Latine.

Tender, expressive, and important.