The Secret Footprints book review by Emily

Title of the Book: The Secret Footprints 

Author Name: Julia Alvarez 

Reviewer's Name: Emily 

 Publisher: Dell Dragonfly Books 

 Date of Publication: 2000 

 Rating: 1-5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The story, the secret footprints, written by Julia Alvarez and illustrated by Fabian Negrin, is about a young ciguapa (which is a secret tribe that lives underwater) girl named Guapa, who is curious about the world above the water she has spent her whole life in. One day, she gets too close to a human family and gets spotted, and since ciguapas have backward feet, the human family thought that she had twisted her ankles very badly. An important lesson that is conveyed in this story is to not judge someone before you know them, as the ciguapas were very afraid of humans and thought that all humans are the same and would turn them over to doctors to be experimented with on. After Guapa had been caught she realized that all humans are not bad, since the boy stayed behind to look after her while his father went to get a doctor, and he was very kind to her. 

The author uses simple language and beautiful imagery to appeal to younger readers and she even added the trait that the ciguapas have backward feet, which may have been to make the characters more silly or to make them stand out among other stories with different or more normal characters. She also uses irony towards the climax of the story, for example when Guapa was discovered by the humans, the readers knew that she was in trouble and were at the edge of their seats until the issue was resolved. The mood of this story is very lighthearted and peaceful. The colors within the pages are dark blues and greens since most of the book takes place at night and seems to be hand-drawn with oil pastels. The main character is portrayed as wild and adventurous. This leads to a feeling of freedom for the reader, who will get lost in the beautiful pages of this story, turning them for more.