Our children’s Book of the Month for February is Toletis by Spanish author Rafa Ruiz. Our thanks go to Neem Tree Press for providing the book club with copies of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Toletis – the blurb
The trees and grass are disappearing to make way for a new section of road. Toletis, his dog Amenophis, friends Claudia and Tutan are on a mission to find ingenious ways of replacing them and turning their little valley town, set deep in the mountains, lusciously green again. The odds are stacked against them. Can they succeed… with some very unusual help?
Toilet?
I think most people’s reaction when I handed out the book was “I thought that said Toilet”. No It doesn’t, but the book does explain how the name Toletis came about very early on. The blurb refers to Toletis and his friends fight to help save the trees in their town. Yet this is only one of the stories that Ruiz tells. Each chapter reads almost like a short story, contained yet linked to a overarching narrative taking us through the seasons in a magical, thoughtful way. Ruiz is committed to culture, art and the environment and this shines through in the book (which is translated by Ben Dawlatly). I will say at times some of the words were perhaps too advanced for my reading crew: ‘verdant’ ‘sentient’ which was echoed by a year 3 teacher who commented she thought the book more suited to 10 year olds than 7. Everyone finished the book however and I read it in an afternoon.
What we did
As activities alongside the book we had a go at making our own language. Which is harder than it looks! We imagined how each animal language would sound and had a go at talking to any pets we had at home. We also had to eat an apple or two (but avoided leaves) to enable us to plant some apple trees. Although to date no teenie-weenies have arrived.
A visual fable
Toletis is a very beautiful book and everyone loved the art work (illustrated by Elena Hormiga). Ruiz co-directs an art gallery in Madrid, there is an illusive artist in one of the chapters in the book and the writing is very visual, full of colour,
I found it very easy to read and liked the magical almost fable feel to the book. The children enjoyed picking their favorite chapters and arguing why there chosen one was the best. It’s certainly different to anything else they had read previously. It’s imaginative, it’s different, it’s also strangely comforting and calming.
We awarded it 3 out of 5 toilets (we couldn’t resist!)
Book Club questions
- Each chapter almost reads like a little short story. My favorite one was Sunday Mornings as it is all about food. Which was your favorite chapter and why?
- In which country do you think Toletis was set? Why?
- In the book Toletis does some wonderful things such as looking at old photos, planting trees and making a fruit salad. Pick one of your favorite things from the book and have a go. We would love to see your results!
- Rafa Ruiz is from Spain and the book was originally written in Spanish. Have you read any other books by foreign authors? Could you mark on a map all the countries the authors you have read come from? What about doing it for settings in books?
- Rafa incorporates elements of folk law, fables and magic in to Toletis. I would love it if mist really was alive. Which magical element from the book would you love to be real?
Join us on 30th March for a review and book club questions on March’s Book of the Month, Orion Lost by Alastiar Chisholm. In the meantime check out our January’s book Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig.