Review of the Day: The Interpreter by Olivia Abtahi, ill. Monica Arnaldo

The Interpreter
By Olivia Abtahi
Illustrated by Monica Arnaldo
Kokila (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593620441
Ages 4-6
On shelves now

When I was a kid I remember watching the blue jays in the trees. They’re loud birds, ones that call attention to themselves. Seeing me gazing at them, my mom told me that blue jays warn the other birds when predators or danger is around. Then she said something that kind of stunned me. “But we don’t really know that much about them.” Why they do those warning calls. Their lives. And the idea that something so common could be so little known just blew my tiny mind. In very much the same way, it’s a feeling I experience when someone writes a picture book on a topic I’ve never really seen discussed before, even though it’s incredibly common. Take, for example, kids that interpret for their parents. That’s the kind of thing I’ve definitely seen in middle grade novels aimed at 9-12 year olds. But picture books? Even though it’s a common reality for a LOT of kids out there, it hadn’t even occurred to me until now to think about the fact that, for whatever reason, we don’t have a lot of picture books on the subject. Which is to say… any? Surely there’s gotta be one or two out there, but until I saw The Interpreter none stuck so firmly in my mind. Smart as a whip, funny, and clever, this little visual metaphor of a picture book is the best possible way to make it crystal clear the responsibilities some kids shoulder.

If you’re a kid you have one job: being a kid. Cecilia? She’s got two. On the one hand she’s a girl with a penchant for soccer. On the other, she’s the official interpreter for her parents. Doctor’s visits? Shopping for mangos? Ordering at restaurants? Sending packages? Call on Cecilia! Trouble is, she’s starting to get exhausted. More and more of her time is spent helping her parents and less and less of her time is spent just having fun. So when a kindly teacher asks how she is doing at a parent-teacher conference, the dam breaks and Cecilia confesses her exhaustion. Fortunately, there can be a solution when you ask for help.

I think a key component to the book is the degree to which it doesn’t blame Cecilia’s parents. Considering the amount of work that their daughter has to shoulder, it would be the easiest thing in the world to tell this book in such a way where the blame falls fully on their shoulders. I’ve already seen people asking why they don’t just learn English. But look at the situations where they need their daughter. Taxes. The DMV. I’m sure they have a grasp on the basics, but when you’re dealing with such serious subjects, that’s when you want to be crystal clear with your language. Enter your small interpreter. The key to this book is where they fall down. I mean, they are ignorant of how much Cecilia has to do, but as a parent myself I totally get that. Previously they were reliant on her older brother for years and now he’s in college, so it just naturally seems like she would shoulder his responsibilities. It’s something she’s more than happy to do too, but at the same time it seemed clear to me that with three kids, and one of them in college, the amount of work that Cecilia has to handle is exponentially greater than what her brother did on his own around the same age. And that’s the kind of thing that creeps up on you when you’re a parent. I mean, you get a glimpse into all the things that they have to deal with, from a sick baby to work online. So the fact that Abtahi is couching this in the context of everyone being busy in some way (along with the thrill Cecilia gets from being useful), you’re given an opportunity to be sympathetic on all sides. At least, I am as a parent. It’s entirely possible a kid would read this and blame the parents, but Cecilia is a willing participant in this process too. At least for a while.

Now the book specifies that Cecilia has multiple jobs but if you separate the text from the images, there’s nothing in there that specifically states that she’s wearing a tie or anything at any point. Admittedly, the whole book is written in the speak of someone who has an occupation (“She used to have a coworker, but he got promoted”), but it took Monica Arnaldo’s specific sense of humor to take all of this as literally as possible in the art. Plus, kids in suits are fun. That’s just a fact. No one’s going to contest it. Now the most famous (to my mind) picture book of a girl putting on a suit and going to a 9-5 job is, without a doubt, Bea and Mr. Jones by Amy Schwartz. No one would ever say that this book paralleled that one, but the two would read well together, should someone want to pair them together. After all, Cecilia rocks that suit. And green! Monica Arnaldo decided to dress Cecilia in a dark green suit, light green tie, and yellow/orange tie and socks. Why? Partly, it may have something to do with how her colors play off the colors of her aunt and brother’s suits at the end of the book. If you look at it, Cecilia is green and yellow, her brother is blue and green, and her aunt is yellow and blue, but each one has hints of the other two’s colors. Now look at what Cecilia wears in real life. Not the green metaphorical suit but her own outfit. It’s still green, but a more natural kid outfit (her brother also wears a green sweatshirt as well, by the way).

But that’s not all!! Speaking of colors, can we talk about the speech balloons in this book? I didn’t notice it on a primary read but each speech balloon is a color that matches the language being spoken. Those speech balloon colors? Blue and yellow and when they overlap you get that green. Suddenly Cecilia’s suit makes a lot more sense, right? She can overlap the colors of the two languages because she speaks both of them. There’s even a bit of Persian in the book (represented as pink) and the boy who translates for his mom wears a purple suit (blue for English, pink for Persian, get it?). The most fun comes when someone speaks both languages. For example, when Cecilia’s father says something like, “Que significa ‘at your earliest convenience’?” his speech balloon doesn’t turn green. The top half in Spanish is yellow and the bottom half is blue. This comes in particularly handy later in the book. Arnaldo uses these colors to indicate moments when the parents appear to be speaking in English, but the color of the speech balloon makes it infinitely clear that what they’re actually speaking is Spanish. And when they speak outside of the speech balloons, the text of English that’s actually Spanish is italicized. Remarkable, right? The sheer amount of thought and energy that has gone into every single element of this book is astounding.

And it’s funny. Did I mention that it’s funny? This is the part that slays me. A book with themes this serious shouldn’t actually be funny. This should be, by all definitions, one of those dour, serious, meaningful picture books. The kinds that I always say are important to have in our bookstores and libraries but, and let’s be honest here, nobody really enjoys reading for fun. A meaningful picture book is the kind that a teacher will do with a class, or a parent will read with their child to make a point… once. Point made? Book put away. But a book like The Interpreter? Dude, I could see a kid wanting to read this over and over and over again. It’s vibrant and highly amusing. Monica Arnaldo first blew up the picture book world when her book Mr. S utterly wrecked children’s librarians everywhere with its hilarity. In this book she manages to squeeze the funny out of everything from a DMV visit (the dad’s frozen smile for his photo is a delight) to the sight of a kid gulping down a coffee. By the way, if anyone wants to explain to me the significance of the license plate, “SBF 2017”, I’d be delighted to hear your answer.

Metaphors exist in picture books. Of course they do. Why do you think Where the Wild Things Are is the hit that it is? As such, let’s not wonder whether or not kids are going to get exactly what the metaphor is for this book. Kids are pretty smart. I’d say they’ll completely get what’s going on, and even if they don’t, reading the book straight works just as well. Some will read the book and realize that they are Cecilia. Others will read the book and realize that their friends or classmates are. And still others will realize that there are Cecilias out there in the world and a tiny drop of empathy will build up in their systems. Read by read. Drop by drop. Bright, colorful, and clever, this is one book we’ve been waiting for years to see. We just didn’t know it yet.

On shelves now

Source: Book checked out of library for review.

Note: This book is simultaneously available in both a Spanish and an English edition.

Videos: This is just a pitch from author Olivia Abtahi to pre-order the book, but I particularly enjoy the fact that her initial pitch was, “Boss Baby meets Severance”. Which… it kinda is?

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2025, Review 2025, Reviews