Book Review: Up Above and Down Below by Paloma Valdivia

Book: Up Above and Down Below
Author: Paloma Valdivia
Illustrator: Paloma Valdivia
Translator: Susan Ouriou
Published: 2012
Source: Local Library

In this trippy little book, there are two kinds of people: those who live up above and those who live down below. The ones down below look very much like the ones up above, except for being upside down. There are differences: when spring comes up above, it’s fall down below, for example. But people everywhere are just about the same.

I call this trippy because the art is downright surreal. You can get a taste of it up there. But of course, behind the surrealism there’s a very simple point about tolerance and universalism. And kids will have a great deal of fun twirling the book around and studying “up above and down below” in different ways.