ALIKA

A child finds hope amid catastrophic loss.

Readers don’t know what happened to Alika, a little girl living in a mostly empty village through which a river runs. “A terrible storm” and perhaps many other calamities have left Alika and her mother living with little water and intense heat and missing many loved ones. Alika lost her playmates, her grandmother, and, as is alluded to in the lyrically opaque text, probably her father. She has also been sick, dreading more doses of a “yucky green medicine.” But as she sleeps, she is hopeful that a gift her mother has promised is soon to arrive. As the book’s final image reveals, mother and daughter are in a tiny boat together, seeking “a new and better life far away.” The powerful closing turns a child’s endurance of suffering into a defiant call of hope. But readers don’t know where Alika and her mother are going; their troubles may be far from over. Author/illustrator Ortega composes stark and mournful two-page spreads that capture the beauty of Alika’s tiny village. The elusive text tells enough without overexplaining Alika’s dire circumstances. Alika and the other villagers (seen in flashbacks) are brown-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A subtly told, emotional immigrant narrative.