death for children is simply an absence: someone who was always, no longer a day and they ask for question that person as the teddy bear is lost, with the certainty that sooner or later the two, the bear and the person-again occupy their rightful place, which have always been and should never give up, leaving at least be told where to go. The death leaves a gap that the children were accustomed to seeing full of presence, a place from which emanated gestures, voice, touch, candy hidden in a pocket and delivered a priceless treasure, a council, an ounce of chocolate wrapped in foil. But kids, of course, do not know what death is death but tested in the innocence of children able to erase his terrible security: in the eyes of the children what was right is empty, simply unexpectedly, without that loved one who filled the corner of reference has been changed to another chair, bed has moved or has migrated from the dining room to the kitchen. Has ceased to be, without more, without accountability or say 'goodbye' or 'now I' and left without releasing a new pamela.
"Where is güelita Queta?" Was the question we should ask Nahir Gutierrez's two sons as they appear when they stopped to see his grandmother, who lived 105 years and that "it was hard like candy Dump in the marble, but their condition was sweet and lovely. " The children's questions are stubbornness as a besieged city that refuses to open its doors to the invaders: if "Queta güelita 'is not to see their grandchildren and the sky is too far and nobody knows what his star, if your park bench also misses less comfortable and still hiding chocolates and embroidered handkerchiefs, if it is impossible to find a restaurant for eating out if you have stairs' güelita Queta "can not go up or down, if anyone is traveling without bring a gift, but above all, if "güelita" invented candy and sang lullabies on the balcony of the home and cleaned the soles of shoes y. .. then, if that, "güelita" must be somewhere, because someone so important not to be missed without more, like a puff of smoke. The logic of children is relentless: he no longer is that it is in another place, because nobody can be anywhere. For children life is moving, not disappearing. Then "güelita Queta" should have moved to a clear, must have been a flash of life of those who wanted: the chocolate in the evenings and notes from school, have always been honored as award to the notes as they teach grandparents, or Christmas gifts or school party ... or deeper and even more entrenched, "güelita" is in every word she speaks.
Tell
death, explain the permanent absence of children, is the challenge that Nahir Gutierrez takes in a short book, low and beautiful words, which Alex has OMISTE illustrations, frugal, sober, reduced to two or three colors but not as intense as the phrases Nahir. This book entitled Where is güelita Queta? has been awarded the Prize XXX Destino Infantil Apel · les Mestres, the most prestigious in the field of picture books. But what really is a book for kids or just kids? When I got my hands looked at him with that complacency or boredom with the older children's books look. But I had to get up and close the office door to read: because I was full of memories and I was excited. Adults also still need someone like us to explain death Nahir and fill our absences.
(IDEAL, 17 February 2011)
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