Kirkus Reviews

A brown-skinned Latine family prepares for and then celebrates the Day of the Dead.Mar, Paz, and their parents have much to do to get ready to welcome family for the big celebration: getting marigolds and sugar skulls at the market, making almond cookies, and writing poems. There are special revelations about ways in which the children are like their grandfather and great-grandmother as well as singing and dancing. At the heart of it all, Abuelita is greeted joyfully and shares family stories. The illustrations are appropriately brightly colored and show off many of the elements of the Day of the Dead. The special marigolds, skulls, and symbolic monarch butterflies thread across pages, tying the celebration and the living and the dead together. Aranda explains why the holiday matters as well as the importance of learning about and preserving ancestral memories. Her text contains just enough information to be beneficial to young readers without overwhelming them. The nuances of the connections between ancestors and current generations, and between lost loved ones and living ones, are expertly captured. Above all, the story centers on the joys of family and tradition. (This book was reviewed digitally.)Shines a triumphant spotlight on Day of the Dead festivities. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

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.)

School Library Journal (Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

K-Gr 3 In her authorial debut, Aranda, illustrator of The Chupacabra Ate Our Candelabra , delivers a charming ode to the Latinx Day of the Dead holiday. A little girl narrates this sweet tale that takes readers through her family's preparations for the event that occurs every November 1st through 2nd, in which families honor those who came before with altars, poems, marigolds, and sugar skeletons. Mar and her sister Paz learn how to make Tia Lucha's favorite tamales, Paz practices their great-grandfather's accordion, and they read through Grandpa Ramón's travel journals. The importance of family, storytelling, and tradition shines through the text and joyous textured illustrations, rendered in watercolor, ink, gouache, and a little bit of Himalayan salt on the paper. Warm and vibrant hues, such as the orange of the marigolds and the bright colors of the papel picado, add to the lively, celebratory mood. The end papers feature a family tree that shows which of the relatives have departed and which ones are still alive. Calaveras, or skulls, and living people mingle throughout, but the joy-filled celebration is especially evident during the fiesta scenes. The matter-of-fact text contains not a hint of fear or mourning, which might be just the right tone for some children with a recent death in the family, making this a perennial title and not one to relegate to Day of the Dead shelves or displays. The living characters all have tan skin and dark hair. A short author's note concludes the book. VERDICT Great fun; a strong choice for picture book collections. Shelley M. Diaz