La caja más grande del mundo

This unique book tells the story of a cat called Leonora who likes to collect things. One day she finds the biggest box in the world, and decides she has to own it! She therefore goes home and gets rid of all the things she has collected, rushing back to discover that the box is no longer where she found it. At first, she is disappointed, but after a while she realises that she likes having space to move around in, to play and use her imagination.

The concept of the story seems simple on the surface (cat finds box, cat wants box, cat cannot have box, cat enjoys her own space instead), but in fact introduces a range of slightly deeper ideas for the child to consider: enjoying your own space and time; the pleasure of owning or collecting things versus freedom from possessions. These are quite unusual for a children’s book, and are important concepts…

La caja más grande del mundo is designed to help children to value their space and time to themselves. It is an amusing story with a profound message and creates ample possibility for discussion on various themes between the adult and the child when they are reading this book.

Primary colours dominate the illustrations: yellow, green, red, blue, black and white. The colour palette is understated in a pencil-drawn and shading style, nothing bright or flashy. This makes the book easy to read, while still giving the character of Leonora the cat a great deal of charm and personality…

In summary, La caja más grande del mundo is a delight to read – for adults and children alike – and as there are no translation issues or culturally-specific vocabulary or concepts, it would be extremely suitable for translation into English, and indeed, other European languages...

From the reader´s report by Charlotte Coombe.