WAITING FOR PAPÁ/ESPERANDO A PAPÁ

For three years eight-year-old Beto and his mother, Salvadoran refugees, have been in the US, where his grandfather already lived. But Beto’s papá has been unable to get a visa, and the boy is adept at expressing his longing for his father as Father’s Day approaches. The letter he writes for his class at school is so vivid that a radio personality has him read it on the air, and his eagerness to collect aluminum cans to raise money to buy his father a new pair of work boots soon involves the rest of his classmates. As exciting as these events are, nothing can approach Beto’s joy when his father is finally able to enter the country. Accardo’s illustrations are full-page, clean-lined, and pastel-toned, with faces reminiscent of Trina Schart Hyman’s work on a larger scale. They face the appropriate text, rendered completely in both English and Spanish. Laínez’s child-centered words make the concept of refugees more approachable and sympathetic, but Beto’s love for his father goes beyond the specificity of the situation, making the story universally endearing. (Picture book. 4-7)