31 Days, 31 Lists (Betsy Bird)

The Capybaras arrive without warning, startling the hens in the henhouse: "No one knew them. No one expected them." The capybaras "couldn't go home, because hunting season had begun." When one of the capybaras saves a baby chick, though, the hens' opinion of the capybaras softens, and the two groups become friends: "Then everything changed." When hunting season ends and capybaras prepare to leave, the hens decide to go with them; the hunters return to an empty chicken coop. "No one ever knew what had happened." The art suits the tone of the story perfectly; it seems to be largely done in pencil, with red spot color for the roof of the henhouse and the hunters' caps. It's not hard to see the allegory about welcoming the stranger/immigrant/refugee.

The first sentence ("That was a safe, agreeable place") is somewhat jarring; on first reading I thought I'd missed a page, but perhaps it's a translation thing.

See also: The Someone New by Jill Twiss, The Suitcase by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros ( )

Delightfully humorous and sweet with the most realistic expressions on the animals' faces. It amazes me how artists can create such intimate expressions with a line or two. (See the two-page, wordless spread of the youngest capybara and the youngest chick.) The developing relationship between the chickens and the capybaras is wonderful. ( )

El día en que llegaron aquellos animales extraños, grandes y peludos, a nadie le quedaron dudas: ¡NO! No había lugar para ellos. Pero los carpinchos no podían regresar a su hogar, pues la temporada de caza había comenzado… Así, carpinchos y gallinas deben entablar una convivencia que será una revelación.