The Capybaras by Alfredo Soderguit translated by Elisa Amado

"A beautiful, simple, deep book about how accepting others 

can enrich us all."

The chickens are happy on the farm. Daily life is predicable and safe until ...  It is hunting season and a group of large capybaras need to find somewhere safe to live until the hunters leave. The chickens do not want these strangers to move in to their home. 

"There were lots of them, they were hairy, they were wet, they were too big. NO! There was no room for them."

The capybaras explain their perilous situation so the chickens do decide they can stay IF they follow the rules:

1. Don't make any noise
2. Don't come out of the water
3. Don't come near the food
4. Don't question the rules

The chickens do not predict, however, that their youngest chick and the youngest capybara will not follow the rules and that they become friends but this is a lucky thing because one night the vicious hunting dog arrives and the life of the little chick is threatened. When the dog is confronted by the group of huge capybaras the crisis is averted.

"Then everything changed." 

Originally published in Venezuela, this picture book is simple and fun enough for preschoolers, but could definitely be used to start some interesting conversations with older ones. The disconnect between the text and the illustrations questions the meaning of such words as “comfortable” and “dangerous”. Delightfully subversive. Kids Book a Day

This book was originally published in 2020 with the Spanish title Los Corpinchos. If you are teaching visual literacy with a group of older students or talking about book design this book would make an excellent text. The illustrations are black, white and brown with touches of red. On the page where the chickens explain "nothing out of the ordinary every happened" you need to take a close look at the farmer as he walks away from the chicken hutch. And the final page in this book has no words but is is clearly the beginning of another huge conversation between the farm animals and the capybaras. 

On its surface, Soderguit’s beguiling picture book offers a direct-enough message: find community in embracing others—even those that seem unfamiliar at first. Yet moments pop up where text and pictures seem at intentional odds, inviting readers to consider a deeper plunge. Aided by an ingenious use of the book’s gutter, the sparse text and wordless segments make this tale an unusually meditative piece of work. Similarly, the artwork shuns colour for the most part, evoking a muted spirit of optimism.  Purely exquisite. Kirkus Star review

Profound and remarkable. Waking Brain Cells

The Capbaras is published by Greystone Kids in Vancouver, Canada and it is an Aldana Libros book: Aldana Libros is an imprint of Greystone Kids that was developed by renowned children’s publisher Patricia Aldana to bring outstanding books to the English-speaking market, by international authors and illustrators who want to communicate their own cultural realities.    

I suggest this book would be an excellent one to purchase for your school library and I am so pleased it has a reasonable price at around $25 for the hardcover. If you speak Spanish take a look at this video and if you don't speak Spanish take a look to see inside this book. And here is another reading on vimeo. Read more about this production here. 

The Hans Christian Andersen nominee Ivar Da Coll from Colombia and Venezuela also has a series of picture books featuring a capybara character called Chigüiro and you can read more about Capybaras in this non fiction book:

We have a new picture book here in Australia - Egg by Claire Atkins published by University of Queensland Press - and this book would be the perfect book to read alongside The Capybaras. 

Read a review of Egg in Reading Time. And this piece from Paperbark Words and Joy Lawn. 

Alfredo Soderguit has illustrated over forty book. The Capybaras is the second book he has written and illustrated. I love seeing books from around the world. Here is the German edition of The Capybaras: