In a touching story about the observations of a child, Abuelita and Me by Leonarda Carranza and Rafael Mayani addresses racism and microaggressions as the child and her Abuelita go about their day.

Everyday Abuelita and her grandchild have a lot of fun. They paint each other’s nails, eat pancakes and splash in the puddles. When they are at home they have fun, when they have to go out into the world some people are mean and impatient with Abueltia and it makes the little girl very sad. When they experience racism on the bus, the girl is frightened and doesn’t want to go back out into the world. Abuelita kindly and patiently gives her the space to build her confidence and try again.

It’s a topic that is not often directly confronted in a picture book, racism and microaggressions. At the grocery store and on the bus, not only are the people who are supposed to be helping impatient and cruel but all of the bystanders quietly look away leaving the little girl and her Abuelita on their own, sad and frightened. Leonarda Carranza shares with young readers the experiences of many marginalized people as they experience their daily lives. 

I appreciate the ways in which parents and educators can use this story to talk about the experiences of marginalized communities and what it means to be a bystander, what they can do if they see things like this happening in their communities. Children are going to have extremely big feelings about this story and I can picture the ways in which it can be used to build empathy and compassion in all young readers. It’s a story that I would hope would make its way into all classrooms across the country. Reading as an adult, it is a reminder of the role we play in how we can help and how we can show that acts like those of the bus driver are not acceptable. We need to set an example for our young readers and I appreciated that reminder.

Rafael Mayani’s illustrations are equally patient and tender. There is a lot of colour but the softness of Abuelita and the little girl, contrasted by the harshness of the bus driver, brings into focus how the experiences shape the little girl. The warm tones and the soft edges sets to mood and tone of the story and help reader navigate the difficult subject matter.