Benito Juárez Fights for Justice

by Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez, Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez (Illustrator)

Overview

From the incredible illustrator of Dreams from Many Rivers comes the story of Benito Juárez, a man who devoted himself to his country and became president of Mexico.

Juárez grew up in a village filled with orange trees, surrounded by the mountains of Oaxaca. As he got older, he wondered: How could such a paradise be home to hungry children, temples in ruins, and shacks made out of straw and branches? Armed with a deep-seated belief in justice, he set out to make a difference.

Following Juárez from his childhood to his career in politics, this is a story of hope and determination.

Godwin Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250257772
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	953,739
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.35(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez is an illustrator and an animator born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico and based in Brooklyn. Her first illustrated book was Dreams from Many Rivers by Margarita Engle.

Editorial Reviews

09/25/2023

Told in the subject’s fictionalized voice, this present-tense picture book biography of political reformer Benito Juárez (1806–1872) focuses on fluidly rendered touchpoints in his life. Living with his farmer uncle in San Pablo Guelatao and learning Zapotec, orphaned Juárez learns that “this land of charm... is also home to rejected and forgotten families.” After running away to Oaxaca, he studies at the city’s Institute of Arts and Sciences, becomes a lawyer, and marries Margarita Maza. Upon entering politics, he is approached by Indigenous people from his hometown, and subsequently works to “build roads, found schools, and open hospitals.” Political upheaval and reversals follow, yet Juárez perseveres, keeping his obligation to his people in mind. Alongside richly saturated, digitally rendered illustrations in tones of gold, green, and mauve, formal prose by Gutierrez Hernandez focuses on Juárez’s movements and those of his wife and children, but a lack of dates can make the narrative feel unanchored. An author’s note and bibliography conclude. Characters are portrayed with varying skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-04-24
A romanticized introduction to an unfairly lesser known Mexican hero.

Writing in first person, Hernandez traces the course of young Benito from village sheepherder to trained lawyer, from exile to repeatedly elected president—emphasizing his lifelong dedication to human rights and protecting the poor and vulnerable. The author’s close focus on his values not only leaves her narrative free of dates until the afterword, but so unanchored in historical context that at the end Benito just trails away—walking down a road to a mystical vision of his country and its residents. Also, though his strong and able wife, Margarita, receives proper attention and the fact that the two belonged to different ethnic groups (Benito was Zapotec; Margarita was of European heritage) is at least signaled in the wedding tableau by their different skin colors, his earlier relationships and children go unmentioned, and his ruthless execution of the forcibly installed French “emperor” Maximilian in 1867 is described, at best, obliquely: “I make the tough decision to punish him.” Overall the illustrations do underscore his liberal, republican principles in richly atmospheric scenes of dark-skinned figures gathering to work, talk, and march collectively beneath flags and banners. And if, as the author notes in her closing remarks, Benito “has become unreachable through time and hard to identify with,” her eloquent tribute will go some way toward spurring younger readers to look into his life and legacy. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An inspiring, if selective, character portrait. (bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews