GRANDMA FRANCISCA REMEMBERS

Engaging color photographs of Angelica and her grandmother, who lives right next door in a San Francisco housing project, accompany the simple text that highlights the contemporary life of a Hispanic family. Some older sepia-tone family photographs also appear to document Francisca’s earlier life in New Mexico. With parents born in the US and grandparents born in Spain, Francisca does not appear to have Mexican roots, but because of her New Mexican roots, many of the foods mentioned in the text are Mexican, such as burritos and tortillas. A recipe is given for calabacitas, a vegetable stew including tomatoes, zucchini, and corn that has variants in several countries. Each two-page spread has a simple sentence in very large type that young children may be able to read themselves, followed by several paragraphs in good-sized, though smaller type that provide additional details. Angelica’s parents are not mentioned much, but the emphasis is on the grandmother-grandchild relationship. The celebration of Three King’s Day (Epiphany) is described as one Hispanic holiday, but its context within the larger Christmas season is not specified, nor is the date given. This is one in a series that the prolific Morris (Families, 2000, etc.) has written about grandmothers from different ethnic groups and the format includes a recipe, a craft (here a rather generic sock doll is featured), and some instructions for finding out about family history. Simple pictures by Linenthal (who has also taken the fine photographs) accompany the recipe and the craft and show a family tree at the end, but these painted illustrations appear out of place within the photo-essay format. Teachers, grandparents, and parents will enjoy sharing this with children of all cultures and then moving on to their own family memories. (Nonfiction. 5-8)