This moving tale introduces the youngest picture book audience to a girl who misses her grandmother, whom she calls Tata or Tatita, as is traditional in many Spanish-speaking cultures and yearns to spend time with her. But Tatita is not here any more. The spare, striking illustrations make it ambiguous whether the girl misses her tata because she lives in a faraway place, is ill, or has passed on. Yet this gorgeous, deceptively simple book’s ending makes it clear that no matter what, your tatita lives in your heart, and you can always hold her in your memory.
multigenerational
Something About Grandma
At Grandma’s house, where Julia is staying without her parents for the first time, the breeze is sweet like jasmine. Mornings begin with sugared bread, and the most magnificent hot chocolate cures all homesickness. There’s something about this place and about Grandma. Like how she can tell when Julia has been quietly picking limes from the garden. Or that she can see the future and knows when Julia is about to fall off her bike. Or how she can journey back in time through the stories she tells. In the room where Julia’s mother grew up, her grandmother holds her in a warm embrace, an embrace that Julia will pass on to her family when her parents arrive with her new baby brother.
A Garden In My Hands
A mother shares family memories and stories with her daughter as she applies henna to the young girl’s hands.
Babajoon’s Treasure
Every summer, Miriam spends a week at her Babajoon and Mamanjoon’s house. It’s her favorite part of summer because every day with her grandparents is an adventure. But when coins fall out of Babajoon’s pocket as he’s getting ice cream, Miriam finds one coin that doesn’t look like the rest a gold one unlike Miriam has ever seen before. Suddenly, she starts to notice certain things about her Babajoon. He can talk to parrots. He speaks with codewords. He trades crystal treasures with his friends. Could her Babajoon be a pirate?
I Remember
A recognition of Muslim loyalty and sacrifice during WW1 portrayed through a letter between a Muslim grandchild to his/her war hero great-grandpa to reassure him that his story and bravery will never be forgotten.
Lolas Nana-Bibi Comes To Visit
Lola’s grandmother is coming to visit, and Lola can’t wait for all the family fun. Nana-Bibi will stay in Lola’s room, so Lola gets to sleep on a special blow-up bed. The family spends the week doing different activities, like shopping for presents for family back in Tanzania, having dance parties, and making special mandazi doughnuts. Nana-Bibi and Lola share a special time as Nana-Bibi remembers all the things she used to do with her nana. This multigenerational celebration of grandmas, moms, and grandaughters will reassure all children preparing for a visit from a faraway relative.
Love Makes A Garden Grow
A young girl observes the bugs and blooms and the rich smell of the soil of her grandfather’s garden. Her grandfather hums as he waters his treasured plants. And when he gives the girl a flower of her own, caring for it teaches her to feel her grandfather’s love. Even as time passes and her grandfather’s garden grows smaller and the girl grows up, she never forgets what she learned or loses her closeness with her nurturing grandfather.
Ramen For Everyone
Hiro loves ramen. Every Sunday, Hiro’s dad makes delicious, perfect ramen for dinner, using a recipe passed down from his dad. There’s nori seaweed, briny like the ocean; nitamago egg, the yolk golden like the sun; and chashu pork so tender, it melts in your mouth. Hiro’s dream is to make his own perfect bowl, and he’s sure he can do it after watching his dad and taking notes. But when he gets started, things don’t go according to plan. The seaweed crumbles! The eggs slip through his fingers! The pork falls apart! Hiro is worried he’ll never be a real ramen chef but thanks to his father’s wise advice and his own creativity, Hiro discovers that every person’s perfect bowl of ramen is unique.
Plátanos Are Love
A delicious picture book about the ways plantains shape Latinx culture, community, and family, told through a young girl’s experiences in the kitchen with her abuela.
Dragonfly Eyes
Ah-Mei and her French grandmother, Nainai, share a rare bond. Maybe it’s because Ah-Mei is the only girl grandchild. Or maybe it’s because the pair look so much alike and neither resembles the rest of their Chinese family. Politics and war make 1960s Shanghai a hard place to grow up, especially when racism and bigotry are rife, and everyone seems suspicious of Nainai’s European heritage and interracial marriage. In this time of political upheaval, Ah-Mei and her family suffer much-and when the family silk business falters, they are left with almost nothing. Ah-Mei and her grandmother are resourceful, but will the tender connection they share bring them enough strength to carry through? This multigenerational saga by one of China’s most esteemed children’s authors takes the reader from 1920s France to a ravaged postwar Shanghai and through the convulsions of the Cultural Revolution.