¡Les Importa Un Pepino! (Who Cares!) - by Barbara Steinitz (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Have you ever noticed that many dogs look a lot like their owners? Or perhaps it's the other way around: do the owners all look like their dogs? But there are some exceptions...

Walking around the streets and parks of most towns, you might notice that many dogs look a lot like their owners. However, Leonora's dog was nothing like her. In fact, they could not be more different! Leonora loved listening to opera. That's why she named her dog after her favorite opera, Fidelio. When Leonora and Fidelio went for a walk, everyone looked at them in a very strange way and started gossiping... "Here they come. They are nothing alike!", they said, laughing out loud at them. Two streets down lived Carmelo. His dog was nothing like him either. Totally different. Carmelo liked to make chocolates. He used to spend whole days coming up with the most daring recipes.

The thing is, Carmelo's dog was the spitting image of Leonora, and Leonora's dog was identical to Carmelo! Tired of people looking down on them, they decided to trade dogs and thus appear more normal. But just when the match was done and they were suppose to fit, all of them felt lonelier and different...

¿Has oído nunca que los perros se parecen a sus dueños? ¿O tal vez sea al revés, y son los dueños los que se parecen a sus perros? Pero hay excepciones...

Si uno va andando por las calles y los parques de la ciudad, verá que todos los perros se parecen a sus dueños. Sin embargo, el perro de Leonora no se parece en nada a ella. De hecho, ¡no podrían ser más diferentes! A Leonora le gustaba la ópera. Por eso le puso a su perro el nombre de Fidelio, en honor a su ópera favorita. Todo el mundo les miraba muy raro cuando paseaban por la calle... «¡Pero si no se parecen en nada!», decían, riéndose a carcajada limpia de ellos. Dos calles más arriba vivía Carmelo. Y su perro Tampoco se le parecía en nada. En nada de nada. A Carmelo le gustaba hacer bombones. Solía pasarse días enteros inventando las recetas más atrevidas.

¡El caso es que el perro de Carmelo era clavado a Leonora, y el de Leonora era exacto a Carmelo! Cansados de que la gente los despreciara, decidieron intercambiarse los perros y así parecer más normales. Pero justo cuando deberían encajar, más solos y diferentes se sentían...

Review Quotes

"Steinitz embellishes her story with, well, waggish depictions of lookalike owner-dog duos, set against a backdrop that combines teal and tawny hues and vintage and contemporary ambiances. But below the book's lighthearted surface is a resonant message about looking beyond appearances and appreciating differences." --Publishers Weekly

"Filled with ambiance-saturated illustrations, this clever story delivers a lighthearted take on the 'be yourself' theme." --Kirkus Reviews

"The illustrations representing the characters and the colorful urban settings in which the action takes place allow us to amplify the feelings and sensations experienced by the protagonists, both humans and animals." --Canal Lector

About the Author

Born in 1978 in Freiburg (Germany), Barbara Steinitz studied communication-design and illustration in Saarbrücken (Germany) and Barcelona (Spain). After getting her diploma she completed a voluntary service in Nicaragua. Teaching workshops in arts and crafts for adults and children at the cultural institution Casa de los Tres Mundos, she started to explore and include puppet-theater within her work as an illustrator. She created several paper theatre shows in collaboration with the musician Björn Kollin and the Mexican ensemble Facto Teatro. Together with the dancer and choreographer Ruben Reniers she founded the ensemble Rubarb dance & art. She has been touring Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Mexico, Canada and the USA, leading workshops and presenting her shows and books in schools, libraries and at renowned puppet theatre festivals. Barbara Steinitz received the Austrian Children's Book Award, the Troisdorfer Picture Book Award and a nomination for the German Children's Book Award. As a freelance illustrator, author and puppeteer she works for several customers, editorials and theatre projects and lives in Berlin and Mexico City.