A quinceañera and a special purple dress serve as inspiration for a little girl to change her lifestyle with exercise and healthier foods. Third-grader Sofía is used to wearing her older cousin Rosario's hand-me-down sweaters and shirts, but when a beautifully fitted dress especially given to her for Rosario's upcoming event is much too tight, her mother gently notes that Sofía has "a little extra here and there." Losing weight is not easy, but Mom suggests that she and sister Mari can do it together by exercising and eliminating sodas and junk food. Despite some initial grumbling, for the next two months, Sofía, Mari and Mom begin to walk to and from school, eat fruits and veggies for snacks, enjoy dancing to music at home, and have fun ice skating. The happy result is a leaner and more energetic Sofía wearing her fitted dress proudly at Rosario's party. A combination of collage, acrylic and crayon delineate a richly bronze-toned and dark-haired Latino family in daily life, all shopping, playing and working together to reach a goal. Plump round faces and bellies gradually slim down, with happy smiles all around. The dialogue-driven bilingual English/Spanish text emphasizes that hard work, moral support and determination can successfully meet a challenge. Sofía's best realization is that her new lifestyle can lead to other positive accomplishments, which helps to cut the didacticism of this good-hearted book. (activity sheet) (Picture book. 5-8)

Readers will follow Sofía as she prepares for her cousin Rosario's quinceañera. Rosario's hand-me-down, fancy purple dress is perfect for Sofía to wear to the party, but it's too tight on her. This serves as motivation for Sofía to better her lifestyle and make healthier choices, and it prompts a trip to the grocery store with Mama to look for "green, red and purple fruits and veggies." As in Family / Familia (1999) and We Are Cousins / Somos primos (2007), Bertrand crafts the characters in ways that feel familiar to us all while still honoring the uniqueness of Latino families, from their languages to special family events. The bilingual English-Spanish exchanges between Sofía and her mother emphasize that hard work, moral support, and determination can make for positive change. Fields' full-page illustrations are vivid and composed of a mix of collage, acrylic, and crayon, and they capture the richly hued browns and the soft roundness of the faces in Sofía's daily life.