School Library Journal Starred Review (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gr 13 In this heartwarming story, Zoe, a young Black girl, shares reflective conversation with her grandma, inspired by Zoe's observations of her grandma's skillful, graceful hands as they bake bread together. The grandmother reveals how her hands hold memories, love of family, and a life lived with purpose, all of which reassure Zoe that her own hands hold strength to shape the start of her own life story. This sincere relationship of trust and care is beautifully captured in oil-painted illustrations, where quiet, personal moments within the kitchen are accompanied by an elegant, symbolic focus on hands. Engel's painterly brush strokes in captivating scenes create textured grooves, an integral element transforming the hands and scenes depicted into sculpted lines and lively colors that appear almost tangible to readers. Vivid blended layers and gentle swirls outline the figures for a glowing effect that echoes the thoughtful tone of the story. VERDICT Readers will pause to share in the happiness and sense of peace that bloom on the family's faces; the spirit of finding one's calling in this expressively illustrated book honoring family and self-love. Rachel Mulligan

Horn Book (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Zoe loves baking cinnamon-swirl bread with her grandmother. As Grandma kneads the dough with a "push and pull," she recalls how her own mother taught her to make bread. When Zoe tries kneading, however, the dough bunches up and sticks to her hands; Zoe wonders "if they will ever move" like her grandmother's. Standing behind her, Grandma places her hands on top of Zoe's and guides the kneading "until it's just right." Engel's (Your Legacy, rev. 1/22) highly textured illustrations, with deep, rich colors, capture the closeness of the intergenerational bond described by Lyons (Dream Builder, rev. 3/20). While the dough rises, grandmother and granddaughter "sit and talk. [Grandma's] hands tell a story if you listen." The following double-page spread shows Grandma's lined palms and fingers up-close, labeled with different identities, including "teacher," "planter," and, most prominently, "mother." As Grandma talks about her own life, Zoe wonders where her own hands will go and what stories they will tell. Baking and reminiscing with Grandma help Zoe see the power and potential she holds in her own hands. A fine companion to Bingham's Soul Food Sunday (rev. 11/21), this story spreads joy like a dusting of flour on a freshly baked loaf. Michelle H. Martin

Publishers Weekly (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Hands and the stories they tell become the means through which a Black child bonds with a beloved grandmother in this expressive, painterly picture book. While showing Zoe how to bake cinnamon bread like her mother taught her (“Ingredients are only part of it. You’ve got to get the rhythm”), Zoe’s grandma describes some of what her hands have seen and done—from dancing onstage to growing a vegetable garden early in her marriage—prompting Zoe to reflect on the future. “I look at my hands, really look at them, for the first time./ I can see memories in every line.// Clapping games with friends./ Drawing my dreams./ Building and baking,” Zoe describes. When the bread is finished, the pair high five, and Grandma remarks upon the physical similarity between their hands, while also musing about the different life experiences Zoe is sure to have. With big brushstrokes, Engel’s thickly textured paintings lend a timeless feel to Lyons’s heartwarming portrait of grandparent-child love. Ages 5–10. (Mar.)