Review: The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo & John Picacio

Of course I was going to read this new picture book by Leigh Bardugo. Have loved her for so many years now. And I was so happy that she was writing a picture book. This lovely book is illustrated by John Picacio. I have not seen his work before, but it was so beautiful in this one.

Giving this precious book five stars. As it was a great story. And oh so beautiful. Not writing such a long review, because this picture book was truly so short. I still want longer ones, ha. But it was short and lovely. I loved both author notes at the end of the book. Honest and real.

This book tells the story of Cala. A young girl who just lost her grandfather recently. And I will say that this broke my heart a little. Since my grandpa died last October. And I cannot believe that it has been almost a whole year already. I miss him all the time. Trying not to think of him too much, as it just hurts. And so this book hurt me a little bit. But I did not mind much. I loved my grandpa so much. I'm still so heartbroken over how he was taken from us. And so I could fully understand how much Cala was grieving over her dead grandpa.

I do wish we had gotten to know him a little more, if this book had been longer. But we learn that he and Cala read books together. And spent so much time together. I loved that. This story takes place during the Day of the Dead. I loved how we got to see a lot of this Mexican culture. It was so beautifully done. Have honestly only seen about it in the Pixar movie, Coco. It was so beautiful and special in that movie. Which made me love it even more in this picture book. The artwork was stunning. I loved all the details.

Cala's family is getting ready to go to the cemetery, to be close to the dead on this special day. Cala do not want to go. She is nervous. And sad. I loved how this was written and shown. While at the cemetery, she ends up seeing four horsemen. One of them is Death. Not saying much about this, as the book was so short. But I liked her short conversations with these four characters. Just wish it had been longer. Sigh. Would have loved to see more of it all. But I found this story to be beautiful and sad and real. Loved it so.

I loved how two of the pages inside the book could expand and make the artwork even larger. It was such a beautiful scene and drawn very well. The four horses were creepy. Okay, three of them. The fourth one was more beautiful. And the others were so weird. Especially the riders. But I loved looking at them too. The Invisible Parade was a beautiful picture book. I am glad that I read it. Even though it made me sad, thinking about my own grandpa. Cala was such a wonderful person to get to know and I fully adored her. 

 

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