The red ladder

An ingenious bird and rabbit are the main characters of “The red ladder”, a fun book for early readers with vibrant, figurative images and simple storyline. Part of the story is accumulative, as it enumerates actions and elements that are repeated consecutively in a kind of memory game, helping to teach vocabulary and antonyms as well as introducing themes such as the size of objects, distances or laterality, with an ending that combines logic and humour. The book also focuses on the idea of lacking confidence in reaching one’s goals, with a true sense of absurdity. Fernando Pérez Hernando invites readers to think about the essence of things and people, reminding us of all the complications and detours that affect our lives when we can do things in a much simpler way if we only trust in our abilities. The illustrations, in tempera and pencil, use a frame-by-frame technique with intense colours, and cinematic touches with close-ups and long shots, further enhancing the aesthetic quality of this funny tale.