WHO CARES! - Hardcover

Born in 1978 in Freiburg/Germany, Barbara Steinitz studied communication-design and illustration in Saarbrücken/Germany and Barcelona/Spain. After getting her diploma she completed a voluntary service in Granada/Nicaragua. Teaching workshops in arts and crafts for adults and children at the cultural institution Casa de los Tres Mundos, she started to explore and include puppet-theater within her work as an illustrator. She created various paper theatre shows in collaboration with the musician Björn Kollin and the Mexican ensemble Facto Teatro. Together with the dancer and choreographer Ruben Reniers she founded the ensemble rubarb dance & art. She has been touring Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Mexico, Canada and the USA, leading workshops and presenting her shows and books in schools, libraries and at renowned puppet theatre festivals. Barbara Steinitz received the Austrian Children’s Book Award, the Troisdorfer Picture Book Award and a nomination for the German Children’s Book Award. As a freelancing illustrator, author and puppeteer, she works for various customers, editorials and theatre projects and lives in Berlin and Mexico City.

PreS-Gr 2—A humorous story about difference and acceptance. Most dogs look like their owners, or is it the other way around? Whimsical illustrations portray the pairings. A cyclist and his greyhound are fast and skinny, an old lady and her Pekingese have the same long face and outfit, and even the neighbor's bull terrier is as mild-mannered as his owner. But Leonora's dog Fidelio is not like her at all. While she's heavy and dresses in blue, he's scrawny and red. They both love opera, and they are happy all the time. But people laugh and point at their differences when they are out and about. Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Carmelo, who is thin and dressed in red, and his big and blue dog Pistachia are the object of the same ridicule, yet they are content together. Circumstances bring the foursome together, and they decide to switch dogs. Now they are physically matched, but no one is happy. Eventually they all come together and enjoy everything together, and when people say they look ridiculous, they simply think, "Who cares!" First published in German, the book is now being published simultaneously in both English and Spanish. The Spanish version is just as charming as the English one. VERDICT Use as a lighthearted vehicle to start a conversation on differences and self-acceptance.—Lucia Acosta, Children's Literature Specialist, Princeton, NJ