Julián at the Wedding (Julian #2)

by Jessica Love (Author) Jessica Love (Illustrator)

Reading Level: K − 1st Grade
Series: Julian

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.

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Kirkus

Starred Review

A celebration of weddings and a subtle yet poignant reminder that gender, like love, is expansive. Lovely. 

None

Starred Review
An abundance of joy and love. 

ALA/Booklist

The intimate details in posture and expression make Love’s illustrations deeply striking, though an element of caricature in her figures ties the work inextricably to the white gaze, fogging any mirror or window some readers might have found here.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

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.)

Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes



Jessica Love
Jessica Love is an illustrator and a New York based actor. She has a BA in studio art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a graduate degree from Juilliard.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781536212389
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Candlewick Press (MA)
Publication date
October 06, 2020
Series
Julian
BISAC categories
JUV011030 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - Hispanic & Latino
JUV017080 - Juvenile Fiction | Holidays & Celebrations | Other, Non-Religious
JUV060000 - Juvenile Fiction | LGBT
Library of Congress categories
Picture books
Imagination
Individuality
Hispanic Americans
Weddings
Gender nonconformity

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