Booklists

CCBC Review:

Pedro Martín’s exuberant graphic memoir about growing up the seventh of nine kids in a Mexican American family in the 1970s is full of teasing and love, poignancy and laugh-out-loud humor. His account details the summer his family traveled to his parents’ hometown of Pegueros, 2,000 miles away from their California home, to bring Abuelito back to live with them. Pedro’s perspective on Mexican life and culture is filtered through dual lenses of cultural outsider and family insider: He is one among the four youngest siblings born in the United States, while his older sibling were born in—and have memories of—Mexico, a fact they happily exploit with the younger kids. These and other family dynamics are marvelously drawn with singular characterizations and a collective dynamic of warmth and good humor. Pedro, a lover of TV, drawing, and superheroes, doesn’t know Abuelito, but the stories he hears about him as younger man during and after the Mexican Revolution become superhero exploits in his imagination and sketchbook—his grandfather as a courageous force of good fighting soldiers and bandits alike. That sketchbook becomes a means of connection between the two on the long journey home. Funny and tender and aching by turn—and sometimes all at once—this is a work of generous spirit and marvelous honesty that will leave readers longing to spend more time with Pedro and his family. ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center   

Illustrated by Pedro Martin

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 8-13
Age Range: Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10) Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Formats: Biography, Autobiography and Memoir Graphic Novel
Subjects: Art and Artists Autobiography/Memoir Families Grandfathers Humor Mexicans and Mexican Americans Travel
Diversity subject: Latine

Publishers: Dial, Penguin Random House
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 309
ISBN: 9780593462294
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 741.5 Martin

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