Our Day of the Dead Celebration

Opening with a naïf-style family tree, Aranda offers a joyful, accessible introduction to a beloved holiday via one family’s preparations. Watercolor, ink, and gouache art, redolent with festive magenta, turquoise, and violet hues, first follows pigtailed siblings Mar and Paz into town to buy marigolds and sugar skulls. Back at home, decorating and cooking give way to arrivals of living relations, portrayed with varying brown skin tones, and of departed relatives. The latter—represented with smiling painted skulls and surrounded by embellishments that reference their passions—hover approvingly alongside the family, rendering the line between past and present a happy blur. The party moves into high gear when Abuelita, who “knows all the family stories,” arrives in a swirling cloud of monarch butterflies. “We feel close to everyone,” says Mar, amid the singing, dancing, and reminiscing, “the living and the dead.” An author’s note closes. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)