Little Golden Key

Roberto Aliaga is an award-winning Spanish author who has published more than 30 books for children, including Cuento de Luz's A Nighttime Story and Dorothy. Dani Padron was born in Ourense, Spain. He started his career as an illustrator in 2011, after winning the "Pura e Dora Vazquez" Award for the illustrations of his first book. Since then, he has published several books. His work for "Pan de millo" was selected to participate at the 2015 Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava.

In this sweet-natured story, when three unnamed mouse brothers discover a key in the woods, they take turns guessing what it might open. The "littlest" mouse, who first spotted the key, thinking it was a "little piece of sun that's fallen onto the ground," imagines that it unlocks a chest of pirate treasure. After some digging, the mice find a buried chest--pretty impressive!--but the key doesn't open it. The "middle-sized" mouse guesses it must open a castle, while the "biggest" one thinks it's the key to happiness. Aliaga (Dorothy: A Different Kind of Friend) uses direct sentences and repeating phrases to give the story a gentle cadence that's well suited to readalouds. Padron's marbled and canvas textures create an almost-three-dimensional world for the mice to explore, one with chunks of cheese tucked into tree branches and keyholes in everything from rocks to giant apples. A tidy ending reveals where the key belongs (hint: Mom looks relieved to see it) and proves all three brothers' guesses to be right, in a way (...) Publisher's Weekly, May 2016