Book of Questions

A New York Times Best Children's Book of 2022

A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) Favorite Book of 2022
A New York Times Bestseller!

A USBBY Outstanding International Book of 2023

A 2023 Bologna Ragazzi Award Amazing Bookshelf Selection

Selected for the Academy of American Poets 2022 Featured Fall Books List for Young Readers

“This work... brings together 74 poems shaped around mysterious, playful, frequently metaphysical questions about nature, constellations, memory, numbers, oceans, the interior life of the mind. Not one of the questions contained in this book resolves an issue of fact. These questions raise other questions. They suggest ideas... It’s good news that Neruda’s question poems (39 of the original 74) have been freshly translated into English by Sara Lissa Paulson and presented for the first time in picture book form, with stylized, dreamlike illustrations by the Chilean artist Paloma Valdivia—English on one side of the page, Spanish on the other... This is a physically beautiful book. Neruda likely would have approved of the way Valdivia has made his dream world real.” —Joyce Maynard, New York Times

“Compiled throughout his life and published a year after his death in 1973, Neruda's thoughtful and playful questions are well known in Latin American literature. Now, a new bilingual, illustrated selection of Neruda's questions has been published by Enchanted Lion Books, giving anglophone readers—and especially children—an opportunity to interrogate the world along with the Chilean poet… The new edition is meant for everyone in the family. The book is large and contains playful fold-out pages and whimsical illustrations that help bring readers into the imaginative world of the questions… In illustrating these questions, Valdivia didn't want to hint at any answers. In fact, part of the magic of Neruda's questions is not that the reader finds an answer but rather finds even more questions.“ —NPR

“Book of Questions now comes alive in a stunning bilingual picture-book, illustrated by Chilean artist Paloma Valdivia. Given Valdivia’s roots and her personal resonance with Neruda, many of the illustrated questions are chosen for and filtered through the lens of landscape and its ecosystems. Of Neruda’s original questions—each of them unanswerable, all of them worth asking, crackling with some vital spark of playfulness or poignancy—seventy come ablaze amid the vibrant illustrations and fold-out delights, radiant with the colors and textures of Latin American tapestry. Out of the totality arises a larger sense of reckoning—a person of uncommon soulfulness and sensitivity to the subterranean strata of life, approaching the end of his days with a cascade of curiosity, singing the ultimate question: What is all this?" —Maria Popova, The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings)

★ “Blues and reds and yellows weave in and out of words trailing one after another, poking and prodding the universe for answers to millennia-old questions. Sixty of the original 316 questions penned by the inimitable Chilean poet Pablo Neruda perch on vibrant landscapes solo, in pairs, or in trilling triplets. Each rumination is compelling in its whimsy, yet profound in its simplicity. Just as a wish cast onto the heavens returns with a treasure, so too do the thoughts of the poet. The answers, like the questions, dwell in infinity. Both the original Spanish and Paulson’s English translation mirror the poignancy echoing from one tongue to the next. Her translations sustain the lyricism of Neruda’s dreamscapes. Valdivia’s stylized illustrations are striking and a perfect counterpoint to this wondrous collection of ethereal literary images. A lovely exploration of diversity, language, and culture, and a splendid introduction to Neruda’s works for the very young.” —STARRED REVIEW, School Library Journal

★ “Selections from Neruda’s final work come magically to life with inventive illustrations in this bilingual volume… Readers will be enchanted by their mind-expanding whimsy and creativity. Chilean artist Valdivia’s stylized artwork, executed predominantly in blues, reds, and yellows against black or white backgrounds, feels grounded in folk-art traditions. Created with pencil and ink, with photographs in the illustrator’s note showing the work in progress, the full-page art is visually captivating and enhanced with texture—lines, splatters, blotting—both complementing and extending the text. ‘Does the earth chirp like a cricket / in the symphony of the skies?