Leyla Torres

In this book, it was a wonderful side step away from the norm. In this book we get to see how young Liliana experiences having two grandmother's both from very different parts of the world. One grandmother lives right across the street while the other lives all the way across the world. The book emphasizes that both have amazing qualities that make them unique. While there may be differences between them, in the end they both love her with all of their hearts'. I loved the illustrations in show more this book because there were a lot of soft colors that reminded me of my own grandmothers'. While there were a variety of colors, there were no bright neons, or sharp contrasting colors, which helped keep the overall tone of the book very gentle and kind. Overall this book was quite fascinating in that it followed what was most likely an interracial girl who was a part of two different cultures. The book emphasized that while the culture may be different, the love is still the same no matter where you go. show less

I wrote my critical book review on this, so i had many things to say, but overall loved this story. Two worlds were represented in an extremely relatable way, and I think each side of liliana's family was shown in a loving, fun way. I think this could become a point for students to dive more into family, identity, culture, etc, I think my only criticism were the sort of old-timeish illustrations. However, the settings were done really well.

Fernando and his family embark on a trip for the weekend when they happen upon a kite festival. Eager to be a part of the festival, Fernando and his family use everyday items that they have on hand to create a kite and take part in the festival. Creativity, ingenuity and working together are themes in this book. While this book is quite long for little kids, it speaks volumes to how teamwork and imagination are cornerstones of this family. There is even an instructional diagram in the back show more of the book about how to make your own kite! show less

Subway Sparrow takes place in the city in a subway train. A sparrow flies onto the train and get stuck in a car where a little Asian girl, a Hispanic man, a women who speaks (French?) and a boy are all trying to rescue it before the car gets crowded with people. This is a great book if you want to talk about diversity.