Julián at the Wedding

by Jessica Love, Jessica Love (Illustrator)

Overview

The star of Julián Is a Mermaid makes a joyful return—and finds a new friend—at a wedding to be remembered.

Julián and his abuela are going to a wedding. Better yet, Julián is in the wedding. Weddings have flowers and kissing and dancing and cake. And this wedding also has a new friend named Marisol. It’s not long before Julián and Marisol set off for some magic and mischief of their own, and when things take an unexpected turn, the pair learns that everything is easier with a good friend by your side. Jessica Love returns with a joyful story of friendship and individuality in this radiant follow-up to Julián Is a Mermaid.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536212389
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	105,891
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jessica Love is an actor and the author-illustrator of Julián Is a Mermaid. She has a BA in studio art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a graduate degree from Juilliard. She has appeared in plays both on and off Broadway. Jessica Love lives in Brooklyn.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/14/2020

Julián is back! He is going to be in a wedding, and he arrives, dressed in a sharp lavender suit and magenta shoes, with his abuela. “A wedding is a party for love,” Love (Julián Is a Mermaid) writes. Julián and flower girl Marisol, who attends in a ball cap with her own caretaker, meet each other, greet the brides—both clad in dazzling white and bright blue shoes—and walk down the aisle with dog Gloria, Marisol sprinkling petals as they go. The brides kiss, the party starts, and Julián and Marisol wander off, Julián having donned Marisol’s flower wreath. When Marisol’s fancy gown suffers from play with Gloria, Julián fashions her a new outfit from his dress shirt and a willow’s trailing boughs—for a magical moment, inside the willow’s arbor, the two become butterflies. “There you are!” the brides cry when the children rejoin the celebration, and an energetic dance party begins, the Statue of Liberty in the background. Artwork on brown paper allows warm, clear views of the characters, who appear to be Black and Afro-Latinx. The specificity of Love’s characterizations—the way the abuelas kick off their high heels, the brides’ enthusiasm, the children’s expansive gender expressions—offers vibrancy and immediacy, and under their community’s watchful eyes, Julián and Marisol find affection, acceptance, and room to grow. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A celebration of weddings and a subtle yet poignant reminder that gender, like love, is expansive. Lovely.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Artwork on brown paper allows warm, clear views of the characters, who appear to be Black and Afro-Latinx. The specificity of Love’s characterizations—the way the abuelas kick off their high heels, the brides’ enthusiasm, the children’s expansive gender expressions—offers vibrancy and immediacy, and under their community’s watchful eyes, Julián and Marisol find affection, acceptance, and room to grow.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Once again Love has brought us young characters who are free to live, play, and express themselves however they wish without conflict. An abundance of joy and love.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

This is a work similar to its predecessor, featuring joyful exploration of gender presentation without any trauma or real conflict. The art, again set on soft brown paper, bursts with dappled color, busy with fluttering fall leaves and flower petals. The intimate details in posture and expression make Love’s illustrations deeply striking...
—Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 2020-07-28
Mermaid-loving Julián is back!

Julián and Abuela arrive at an outdoor wedding on a green lawn (discerning eyes will spy the Statue of Liberty in the distance). Both meet friends at the wedding: Abuela, a familiar friend, and Julián, a new one, Marisol. Julián and Marisol are part of the wedding, which the text proclaims is “a party for love.” Julián holds the leash of Gloria, the brides’ dog, and Marisol—whose baseball cap has been swapped out for a flower crown—tosses petals. Later, after Marisol gifts Julián the flower crown, Marisol, Julián, and Gloria run off to the “fairy house,” or weeping willow. Marisol and Gloria have such fun that muddy paws aren’t a thought...until Marisol’s peach-pink dress is covered in paw prints. But never fear, innovative Julián is here! With the help of the fairy house, all’s well that ends well: Marisol’s hat is returned, the brides welcome the pair back, and everyone celebrates love. Love’s media, applied, as in the previous book, on brown paper, create colors that appear simultaneously soft and vibrant. Most of the main characters present Black or have brown skin. As established in the previous book, Julián and Abuela are Afro-Latinx, and Abuela’s friend and Marisol are also cued Latinx.

A celebration of weddings and a subtle yet poignant reminder that gender, like love, is expansive. Lovely. (Picture book. 4-8.)

Kirkus Reviews