ASHIMPA

In this Portuguese import, the discovery of an obscure word incites widespread public curiosity.

One fortuitous day, a researcher unearths a word long lost in the pages of an ancient dictionary: ashimpa. News of the researcher’s find reaches far and wide to a receptive audience. Still, the word’s origins raise even more questions. “No one knew what the word meant, or even what type of word it was.” When asked, 137-year-old Mrs. Zulmira suggests that the word is a verb, so everyone begins to “ashimp” everything. Then, a linguist declares that ashimpa is actually a noun, and people start to claim that they’ve seen ashimpas, which apparently exist abroad and are green. Everyone demands one, and the furor reaches a fever pitch until the researcher returns after much careful investigation to share that the word is, in fact, an adjective. What an ashimpish result! Soon, the use of ashimpa descends into utter confusion—people treat the word as an adverb, a pronoun, and “even a preposition!” A tongue-in-cheek treatise on the elasticity of language, Sobral’s latest sparkles with profound wit thanks to a wonderfully bizarre premise. The author/illustrator leans on quaint absurdities to muse on the humor of everyday grammatical conventions. Meanwhile, the flat abstract artwork favors round bodies and long limbs among a predominantly light-skinned cast of characters set against a city brimming with vivacious reds, greens, and yellows.

Ashimpishly delicious fun.