The Life of/La vida de La Pola

PreS-Gr 2–The latest entries in the publisher’s “The Life of/La vida de” series feature an 18th-century revolutionary who is considered one of the greatest figures in Colombian independence and 20th-century Mexican American journalist Ruben Salazar (see ISBN 9781948066570). Born in 1795 rural Colombia, Policarpa “La Pola” Salavarrieta became a seamstress and moved to the capital to spy on the royal family. With the intelligence she gathered, the country was able to win independence from Spain. Salazar was the first Mexican American columnist for the Los Angeles Times and devoted his career to shedding light on Chicano issues. Both trailblazers made a mark on Latinx history, breaking boundaries to do so. La Pola illegally learned how to read. She crossed gender and class divides. Salazar used his platform to fight for equality for Latinx people. These bright board books pack in a lot of text and information within their sturdy pages. The English narrative is placed at the top and the Spanish below it. The stylized art presents the subjects as young children, making these volumes more kid-friendly. The illustrations for the book on La Pola lean heavily on yellow, blue, and red, the colors of the Colombian flag. The background characters are rendered with different skin colors, emphasizing the racial diversity within the country. Newspaper-like clippings pepper the pages of the Salazar title; writing instruments—pens, a typewriter—are also prominent.