Plátanos Are Love

Cooking plantains with Abuela, young Esme grows to appreciate her family lineage in this intergenerationally focused first-person tale, a double author and illustrator debut that incorporates English and Spanish throughout. Shopping at the market, Esme learns from Abuela that plátanos are more than just food: “They feed us in/ more ways than one.” Finding that “our ancestors picked plátanos de los árboles,” Esme imagines she is “plucking them from high up in the trees,/ like mi familia from long ago.” And Esme transcribes Abuela’s recipes in a notebook while watching her grandmother cook various dishes with the ingredient, learning that their forbears weren’t allowed to read, write, or draw. Rahman’s digital illustrations use bright, warm colors for contemporary spreads and desaturated greens and browns to delineate scenes occurring in the past, contributing to a thoughtful story of legacy. A glossary and plátanos recipes conclude. Characters cue as Afro-Latinx. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)