Duendes caseros

Gr 3 Up—Over 21 house sprites are introduced and celebrated in this delightful Spanish-language picture book for older readers. According to Venezuelan author Lovera, these camouflaged tricksters love to live in homes of the truly eccentric. If kids like to "hypnotize chickens or impersonate a vase," chances are good they'll attract anything from a toaster sprite to a broom closet sprite. Each of these diminutive house elves has a full page of poetic prose and a verse dedicated to their habitat and habits. The rhyming descriptors are fanciful and replete with lush vocabulary. Lovera's creative word portraits can be enjoyed en masse or individually. Paired with Guglielmetti's Picasso- and Dalí-esque illustrations, this homage to whimsy beguiles the imagination. Thieving ants keep company with an ornate sentient flower pot while an unflappable cat and dog stroll nonchalantly among the unorthodox tenants. These detailed graphite and watercolor images invite hours of perusal.