The Best Tailor in Pinbaue
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The first book written and illustrated by Eymard Toledo shows one boy's pluck when his beautiful town is ruined by the arrival of a gray, dusty factory.
Uncle Flores is the best tailor in the small river town of Pinbaue in Brazil. He used to make beautiful dresses and colorful costumes for the carnival, but nowadays he only makes gray uniforms for the factory workers. The houses are covered with dust from the factory, the river water is murky, and everything is drab. Edinho, his nephew, comes by every day after school to help cut and iron the cloth and listen to his uncle's stories. The best ones begin with "Once upon a time...." But when the factory tells Uncle Flores they don't need his uniforms anymore, Edinho comes up with an ingenious idea to get his uncle back to work and make everyone in town happier and brighter. Soon Uncle Flores's house is the most popular one in town....
In The Best Tailor in Pinbauê a small act of beauty in the midst of environmental degradation reminds young readers of their own agency and of the life-affirming strength of family and community.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A boy with a skilled tailor for an uncle narrates this elegant and poignant story of the way industrialization reshapes a fictitious Brazilian town, the English-language debut for author-artist Toledo, herself born in Brazil. With his parents busy working, Edinho spends his days with Uncle Flores, who once sewed colorful clothing but now mainly creates gray overalls for the factory that transformed the village into a larger town, turned its river murky, and has left Pinbau coated with dust most days. When the factory starts importing cheap uniforms from overseas, Uncle Flores is out of work, but with his nephew's help he begins sewing vivid curtains that lead to bigger transformations and a renewed sense of community in Pinbau . The interactions between Edinho and his uncle unfold with tenderness, but it's Toledo's arresting collages, created with exacting precision and striking attention to detail, that will captivate readers. Carefully constructed from cut, folded, and torn paper, as well as photographic elements, her subtly textured scenes bring readers intimately close to a changing way of life. An afterword thoughtfully discusses the story's real-life influences. Ages 5 8.
