Abuelo, the Sea, and Me

April 8, 2024
Over the course of four seasons, a child and their abuelo connect during visits in this loving intergenerational book that looks both forward and back. The child’s first-person narration offers sensory-rich descriptions of the pair’s trips to the beach. In summer, “the hot sand burns until we slip into the cool water,” and the child hears stories about Abuelo’s youth in Havana. In autumn, “geese chase the vanishing sun south, toward the island Abuelo fled,” and further seasons offer more about Abuelo’s life as a medal-winning swimmer in Cuba. Abuelo’s longing for home also reveals the speaker’s growing emotional awareness. Gardel’s delicate digital art has the feel of watercolors on textured paper; the pair’s strong bond becomes focal in images of the two holding hands and echoing one another in posture or expression. In English and Spanish, Williams’s narration portrays the power of place and memory in facilitating bonding. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Creator notes conclude. Ages 4–8.

May 15, 2024
Season by season, a child learns about Abuelo's past life in Cuba. The young narrator visits Abuelo several times a year, and they always go to the beach near his home. Starting in summer, the child gets glimpses into the life Abuelo led before he fled Cuba. "In Havana," he says, "marl�n and delf�n would leap right there!" Though he smiles at the memories of pineapple, guava, and coconut ice cream, his reminiscences are tinged with sadness, too. Abuelo won medals for his swimming prowess, but he left them behind in Cuba. He misses his homeland "so much it hurts," but he's grateful to still have the ocean he loves, as well as his family, including his grandchild. This confidently told story, made up of brief moments between Abuelo and the grandchild, gets deeper as it goes on, with richly textured digital illustrations highlighting the changing light and weather as summer, fall, winter, and spring each take their turn. Without ever becoming overly sentimental, the book conveys how past and present simultaneously coexist for Abuelo. The sky fills with clouds shaped like dolphins and marlins after Abuelo reminisces about them, and large medals, like the ones Abuelo won back in Cuba, wash in with the tide. Spanish words are incorporated throughout. A deftly told immigrant's story of bittersweet memories and a grandparent's love. (author's and illustrator's notes) (Picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2024
In this moving picture book, a child and grandfather spend time together near the ocean and through the four seasons. The child listens to stories of life near a different beach, in Havana, Cuba, where Abuelo grew up. Memories are all that Abuelo has from his beloved home country; when the grandchild asks to see swimming medals that he won there, he says, "I left them behind. I do not even have pictures." But the pair still enjoys the temperate beach outside Abuelo's new home, stopping for creamsicles instead of guayaba ice cream and experiencing snow and icy winter storms rather than hurricanes. Warm watercolor-esque digital illustrations guide readers through the oceanside seasons, blending in symbols of tropical island memories: marlins and dolphins in the clouds, palm trees in Abuelo's eyes. The child worries that Abuelo is sad when he thinks about Cuba, and though he is, he assures the child, "But I still have the ocean...Most importantly, I have you." A gentle text that offers a nuanced and relatable perspective on the bittersweetness of remembering a faraway home and that celebrates the relationship between grandparent and grandchild. Appended author and illustrator notes express heartfelt personal connections. Monica de los Reyes

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
In this moving picture book, a child and grandfather spend time together near the ocean and through the four seasons. The child listens to stories of life near a different beach, in Havana, Cuba, where Abuelo grew up. Memories are all that Abuelo has from his beloved home country; when the grandchild asks to see swimming medals that he won there, he says, "I left them behind. I do not even have pictures." But the pair still enjoys the temperate beach outside Abuelo's new home, stopping for creamsicles instead of guayaba ice cream and experiencing snow and icy winter storms rather than hurricanes. Warm watercolor-esque digital illustrations guide readers through the oceanside seasons, blending in symbols of tropical island memories: marlins and dolphins in the clouds, palm trees in Abuelo's eyes. The child worries that Abuelo is sad when he thinks about Cuba, and though he is, he assures the child, "But I still have the ocean...Most importantly, I have you." A gentle text that offers a nuanced and relatable perspective on the bittersweetness of remembering a faraway home and that celebrates the relationship between grandparent and grandchild. Appended author and illustrator notes express heartfelt personal connections.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)