As brilliant as backlit stained glass, Domi’s big, naïve watercolors create a lush country setting for this child’s account of her village’s relocation. Because the new dam will flood their old San Pedro Ixcatlán, a vanguard of Mazatecan families travels ahead to clear and plant rice fields for a “Nuevo Ixcatlán.” In buoyant tones, young Napí records the journey, sighting a jaguar, how burning off the underbrush for the new settlement left everything—including her little brother Niclé—ashy grey and finally a dream that combines these and other memories in the wake of a scary accident to her Namí (father). The Spanish and English texts are placed well apart on facing pages beneath the full-spread illustrations. As in Napí’s previous two appearances (Napí Goes to the Mountain, 2006, etc.), the author and illustrator, who are human-rights activists, build in a subtle political subtext, but children will respond most readily to Napí’s guileless optimism. A glossary translates Mazatec words into both Spanish and English. (Bilingual picture book. 6-8)
