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Abuelo, the Sea, and Me is a tender, heartwarming picture book that vividly explores intergenerational connections, family history, and the immigrant experience.
When this grandchild visits her abuelo, he takes her to the ocean. In summer, they kick off their shoes and let the cool waves tickle their toes. In winter, they stand on the cliff and let the sea spray prick their noses and cheeks. No matter the season, hot or cold, their favorite place to spend time together is the beach.
It’s here that Abuelo is able to open up about his youth in Havana, Cuba. As they walk along the sand, he recalls the tastes, sounds, and smells of his childhood. And with his words, Cuba comes alive for his grandchild.
Imprint Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, Macmillan
Reading Age: 4-8 years
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN 13: 9781250848772
ISBN 10: 1250848776
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)
-Publisher’s Weekly
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, “marlín and delfín would leap right there!” Though he smiles at the memories of pineapple, guava, and coconut ice cream, his reminisces 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.