Ariel Andrés Almada is an Argentine social entrepreneur and consultant who writes business books, lectures around the world, and loves to create children's stories. He and award-winning illustrator Sonja Wimmer have been working together on a Family Love series which includes Little One, Son, and now Brothers and Sisters, all translated into English from the original Spanish.
This latest book delightfully captures the polarities of sibling relationships: how they make us happy even though at times they drive us crazy. From the opening picture in which a little sister tickles her brother awake with a long feather to a subsequent free-for-all in which one kid pulls on another's hair while getting kicked in the face by a third child's bare foot, Almada and Wimmer face straight into the mayhem that happens in families. These scenes are balanced by ones of imagination, curiosity, and tenderness, like sisters and brothers cuddled together to read by flashlight under a sheet tent.
The book is narrated by a child who's a sibling. Wimmer widens out the narration by featuring a different family (or sometimes more than one) on every set of pages. This allows us to see a marvelously diverse array of children, sometimes simply in pairs and sometimes in whole heaps of children, shoes, cats, etc.
For instance, in one page spread the narrator tells us, "I once read a book that said there are lots of different types of brothers and sisters. The ones who are born from the same mom, and the ones we find along the way." Wimmer gives us nine accompanying snapshots: among them a light-skinned child kissing the pregnant belly of a brown-skinned mom, an assortment of five kids making the goofiest faces they can, and a girl wrapping her arms around a boy in a wheelchair as they smile out at us through the frame.
The emphasis is on learning together and living harmoniously amid differences. The book goes a step further, highlighting lifelong caring. "Whatever happens, I want you to know that you can always count on me" is illustrated by a girl telling off three bullies, all bigger than she is, after they knocked her brother's glasses off.
From beginning to end, readers ages four to eight get clear reminders that even though siblings can be a pain sometimes, overall they're a source of great joy. We live in a world where tenderness, sympathy, and understanding are often in short supply. By showing and telling about the ways these qualities can shine forth in families, Almada and Wimmer cultivate a more caring future.
