Juan Hormiga

by Gustavo Roldan (Author) Gustavo Roldan (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2^nd − 3^rd Grade

A whimsical tale in which family lore inspires newfound daring, told by Argentina's sleepiest ant.

Juan Hormiga, the greatest storyteller of his entire anthill, loves to recount his fearless grandfather's adventures. When Juan and his fellow ants gather around for storytime, he hypnotizes all with tales of his grandfather's many exploits - including his escape from an eagle's talons and the time he leapt from a tree with just a leaf for a parachute. When he's through telling these tales, Juan loves to cozy up for a nice long nap. He's such a serious napper that he takes up to ten siestas every day! Though well loved by his ant friends, Juan decides telling tales and sleeping aren't quite enough for him - it's time to set off on his own adventure. With whimsical, irresistible illustrations, Juan Hormiga affirms the joys of sharing stories, and of creating your own out in the world.

Common Sense Media Review

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Kirkus

Charmingly ant-ic black line drawings, accented with red, green, and yellow, pop against expansive white space. Dialogue is keyed in red type, enhancing the handsome overall design. Roldán celebrates the social currency of cracking-good storytelling--and the expediency of a well-placed nap.

Publishers Weekly

Juan Hormiga is an ant with two skills: his impressive napping and his hypnotic storytelling. In scribbly lines against lots of white space, Roldán draws the protagonist, a red ant, and his peers, black ants, as cartoonlike characters with googly eyes and large mandibles. Juan Hormiga's stories all center his intrepid grandfather--an ant who traveled and faced great danger, "the bravest creature to ever set foot in any anthill." Though the other ants have memorized Juan Hormiga's grandfather's achievements, they love to hear the tales retold. One day, though, Juan Hormiga announces his intention to strike out alone, reenacting the brave feats his grandfather tackled before him. After he departs, and it starts to rain, the ants begin to worry, building narrative tension by recounting the mythical stories: "Maybe he's going down into the ravine, hanging from a spider's thread. His grandfather did that." With a funny ending, a nested telling, and a folktale's meandering charm, this story has the same hypnotic draw as Juan Hormiga's own. Ages 5-8. (May)

School Library Journal

Starred Review

K-Gr 3–Juan, the roguish hero of this tale, is a charming ant who has only two strengths, napping and telling his grandfather’s stories. In these tales, Grandpa swings from branches, kicks spiders, and parachutes using leaves from trees. The other ants listen with rapt attention. Using a limited green, red, and black color palette and a deceptively simple drawing style and font, Roldán creates a sophisticated picaresque that elevates the act of oral storytelling to a central role in the ant community. Visual cues, such as Roldán’s use of red to distinguish Juan from his fellow ants or a switch in text color, add to the accessibility of the book. The cartoonish style and the indulgent and adoring response of the other ants to Juan’s behavior signals to readers the overall tone of humor and absurdity. Although familiar in structure to a folklore or fable, the message of the story, rather than being cautionary, is about the act of sharing stories. There are no dire consequences to Juan’s less than industrious lifestyle. A moral? Stories are a valuable contribution to society and that without this art form, life becomes untenable and dull.

VERDICT An excellent purchase for any collection where longer, complex picture books that lead to discussion and laughter are appreciated.

Review quotes

Storytelling shows itself as both art form and communal delight in Gustavo Roldán's tale of an exceedingly small raconteur . . . Juan Hormiga specializes in relating episodes from the life of his grandfather, a daredevil whose exploits, as Juan tells them, enthrall his industrious compatriots . . . Readers ages 5-8 will find themselves brought full circle in this assured and charming tale. — The Wall Street Journal

Juan Hormiga is finally available in English, and thank goodness! . . . Whimsical, charming, fun, adorable, the whole nine yards of illustration and description . . . Juan Hormiga is a jewel of a story. It has everything my kids and I want from a book. — Juanita Giles, NPR.org

This fable, written and illustrated by Argentine author Gustavo Roldan, is an homage to storytelling and the power of myth. — Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune

This fable is a homage to storytelling and the power of myth. — Richmond Times Dispatch

The book is charming . . . The art is done in black ink with bursts of color in red, green and tiny bits of yellow . . . Much like Stuart Little . . . Juan Hormiga is refreshing in its simplicity. — Susan Middleton Elya, New York Journal of Books

This Argentinian import, a delightfully idiosyncratic ode to storytelling, just begs for a readers' theater performance, balancing the various ants' emotive musings with a folkloric narrative tone . . . The scribbly art has a cheerful verve with dynamic compositions and a plethora of frantic motion lines, and the ants themselves are pleasingly odd little dudes with oversized beaklike heads protruding over pudgy bottoms and sticklike appendages. — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Juan Hormiga is a little tiny ant but his stories do wonders. When he sets off on his own adventures, you are on the edge of your seat to see where he is going and what will happen . . . A beautiful, playful story full of sparkle & creativity. — Olga Popivker, Stylish Modern Motherhood

Gustavo Roldan

Gustavo Roldán was born Argentina in 1965. His illustrations are widely published, and he has been exhibiting his work since 1985. His books have been published in numerous countries including Mexico, Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands, Brazil, Korea, and Switzerland and have earned him recognition from A.L.I.J.A. (Argentine IBBY), the Prix Octogone (CIELJ, France), and inclusion in the White Ravens catalogue created by the Judendbibliothek in Munich, Germany. His other books with A buen paso publishing house include El señor G (translated into six languages), Historias de Conejo y Elefante, and Juan Hormiga, both also published internationally. He currently lives in Barcelona, where he is a contributor to several publishing houses.

Robert Croll is a writer, translator, musician, and visual artist from Asheville, North Carolina. He first came to translation during his undergraduate studies at Amherst College, where he focused on Julio Cortázar's short fiction. His translations include The Diaries of Emilio Renzi by Ricardo Piglia, published by Restless Books.

Classification

Fiction

ISBN-13

9781939810823

Lexile Measure

Guided Reading Level

Publisher

Elsewhere Editions

Publication date

May 04, 2021

Series

BISAC categories

Library of Congress categories

Storytelling
Picture books
Adventure and adventurers
Adventure stories
Ants

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