I don’t always talk about unsolicited books I receive, but these two caught my eye for a couple of reasons.
Carmen Gil is author of both of these imaginative tales. In The Things in the Air the reader finds Snouty Witches trying to take the Things in the Air away because they are a waste of time. Then in The Box of Holes, Andrea’s mother is upset when she brings home what she sees as an empty box. But when Andrea opens the box in her room, the holes she pulls out leads her to discover remarkable characters who fill her room with amazing stories. 
Both books are very creative and use imagination to create wonderful worlds for young readers. Gil is definitely talented and I look forward to seeing more of her work. As far as the illustrations go, I much preferred Monica Carretero’s style in The Box of Holes. The elves and the witches in The Things in the Air were a bit creepy and a couple of the pages are downright scary. I wonder if the younger end of this market group would be frightened by them.
One note that has nothing to do with the quality of the content is that the cover on the copy of The Things in the Air I received was put on upside down and backwards; so when I opened the front cover, the inside of the book was upside down and I was actually at the end of the story. Very odd. I’ve never seen that before in all my years of reviewing.
Things in the Air (available in English and Spanish versions)
Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
- ISBN-13: 9788415784043
- Publisher: Cuento de Luz
- Publication date: 5/13/2014
- Pages: 28
- Age range: 5 – 8 Years
The Box of Holes (available in English and Spanish versions)
Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
- ISBN-13: 9788415784449
- Publisher: Cuento de Luz
- Publication date: 4/15/2014
- Pages: 40
- Age range: 4 – 8 Years
The Children's and Teens' Book Connection 