Junior by Sheila Gonzales-Dela Cuesta

Title of book: Junior
Author: Sheila Gonzales-Dela Cuesta
Illustrator: Noel Manacsa
Year published: 2010
Publisher: Lampara Books

Identity

By: Trish Cortez
*Trish Cortez, a student of Miriam College. She is currently taking up Child development and Education but in her free time she enjoys making artworks and reading books.*

The Carlo Palanca Award winning children’s book “Junior” by Sheila Gonzales-Dela Cuesta, has a very unique storyline. It is not very common amongst this specific kind of genre. Very rarely do you see children’s books with this kind of theme.

To summarize the story, Victor, the main character goes around town in search of his father; He feels the need to find his father in order to see how similar they are since he couldn’t distinguish any similarities of himself with his other relatives. Eventually, he just gave up the search and decided to just ask his mother, who in turn told him the whole story. Victor then realizes that he no longer needs to see his father for he is very much the same with his other family members. Not by appearance but by actuations and mannerisms.

The author’s intention was to show how a child can live with just one parent. As Ms. Dela Cuesta explained in the first pages of the book, she wanted to show the readers “ a humane way of dealing with a situation similar to Victor’s” and also to show people that it doesn’t matter if a child was brought up by a single parent, that there are more important, positive, things in life than missing parents. As I read the book, I realized that I have a different perspective of the moral lesson of the book. I thought to myself that maybe in Victor’s search for his father; he may also be searching for himself. Since he couldn’t accept how different he looked compared to his other relatives, he tried to see if he looked more like his father and maybe that would show him who he is. In my perspective the book showed that a person’s identity does not come from looking like everyone else but comes from the different traits you get from people that make you unique. What the book shows its readers is that people gain their identity not by their similarity of appearance with others but by the combined personality and attitude that you have acquired from the people around you. I guess the identity that the author was trying to explain is the mixture of the things you learn from the people you spend time with, and it is what builds who you are. Victor didn’t look like any of his relatives, but their moves and actions made them very much alike. He knew then that he didn’t need to look like his relatives to be someone.

Not only was the storyline beautiful, but the art that was used in the book too. Like the story that was odd for a children’s book, the art was too, though not in a bad way. The colors that Noel Manacsa used were uncommon for the books genre since it was very gloomy and dark. Once you open the book, you would rarely see any bright colors, that’s because Mr. Manacsa dominantly used dark or mellow tones of green and yellow for the art. It truly set the mood to how the readers of the book were supposed to feel. Every turn of the page the art deepens the storyline and makes the reader feel every moment Victor is experiencing.

Junior is definitely a must read not only for children but for all ages. It is a book with a great storyline, great art, and gives a really great lesson. I would have considered the art to be a little livelier at the end but all in all, it was pretty good. Junior definitely deserved the literature award. I highly encourage everyone to grab a copy of this book.