The Land of the Lost Things/El país de las cosas perdidas

K-Gr 4—A boy sits down to draw, only to notice that his blue pencil is missing. He wonders about its fate. Looking inside his empty pencil box, he sees a thin ray of light and goes through a crack and enters the Land of Lost Things. He travels through the Forest of Lost Blue Pencils and sees objects that have been gone for some time—a golden button, a green comb, etc.—until he is lost himself. He passes the Mountain of Lost Mittens, the Garden of Lost Umbrellas, and a Herd of Lost Socks. The story is circular and when the boy looks through the hole in a sock, he makes his way back, looking at the interior of his pencil box. He never finds his blue pencil, but he starts drawing with a brown one and wonders where it will take him. Bursztyn sustains her clever and imaginative text with playful and dreamlike illustrations. This beautiful bilingual book stands out for its artistic design and the balance between the author's verbal and visual message. Both the English and Spanish texts make for enjoyable read-alouds.—Freda Mosquera, Broward County Library, FL