ABUELA'S FIDEO

A Latine child remembers her grandmother’s love through the scents and tastes of a favorite soup in this debut picture book.

On a rainy day, Dulce Ramos yearns for her grandmother’s fideo soup. But because Abuela has died, Dulce believes there’s no way to figure out the recipe. Remembering the times she watched Abuela cook, Dulce decides to try her own recipe—to disastrous results. In tears from her failure and grief, Dulce explains to her mother: “I was missing her, and I thought making some fideo would make me feel better, but it just made me feel worse!” Dulce and her mother wish they’d learned the recipe from Abuela, but as they share their memories of how they helped her at each step of the process, they realize they know more than they thought. They start to make the soup, and the final product tastes like Abuela’s love for them. This touching story of sorrow and togetherness gives a strong sense of the feelings of sadness people experience when their relatives die as well as delivering an empowering message that memories keep their love for them alive. Tijerina presents simple, brief passages on each page, incorporating some Spanish vocabulary to great effect, letting her illustrations convey the action. The geometrically styled cartoon images—featuring big, round eyes and triangle noses—are so heartfelt readers will imagine the smells (of delicious fideo and Dulce’s mistake) coming right off the page.

A tender tale of love and food triumphing over loss.