EYMARD TOLEDO was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. At the age of 25 she moved to Berlin, Germany, where she completed her studies in industrial design. She still lives there today with her husband and two children.
"An elegant narrative is complemented by meticulously detailed
collage illustrations that use handmade papers and photographs
arranged to capture the craft of sewing, the setting, and the
camaraderie of a boy, his uncle, and a shared legacy of
conversation. The Best Tailor in Pinbauê can be thematically and
aesthetically paired with Joanne Schwartz's Town is By the Sea
(2017)." —Booklist (Starred Review)
"A young boy helps revive his uncle's failing tailoring
business.Uncle Flores is the best tailor in the fictional Brazilian
town of Pinbauê. Young dark-skinned Edinho enjoys helping, but what
he loves most is the sound of his uncle's sewing machine going cloc
cloc cloc cloc cloc. Business was good for Uncle Flores until the
factory came to town. The story takes on depth and addresses both
social and environmental injustice as the other problems that came
with the factory come to light: mainly a polluted river, the Velho
Chico. Instead of the colorful clothes Uncle Flores used to sew,
now his only work is creating gray overalls for the factory
workers. When the factory begins importing overalls, narrator
Edinho suggests his uncle use scraps of old fancy colorful clothes
and make curtains out of them. A sole customer leads to a
resurgence of Uncle Flores' business and sparks joy for the entire
town. Mixed-media collage is a fitting choice for this story of
cutting and piecing things together, though the bright colors at
the end don't significantly stand out. Refreshingly, Portuguese
words sprinkled throughout the fairly lengthy text aren't
italicized. Though the solution reached doesn't solve all the
problems facing the people of Pinabauê, as the afterword says, 'it
gives the people hope and happiness. And that's quite a beginning,
isn't it?' Yes, it is. Loving and hopeful." —Kirkus Reviews
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