Song of Frutas (HC)

"When we visit Abeulo, I help him sell frutas, singing the names of each fruit as we walk, our footsteps like drumbeats, our hands like maracas, shaking bright food shapes while we chant with a rhythm: mango, limón, coco, melón, naranja, toronja, plátano, piña." This girl lives far apart from Abuelo, but they can sing rhymes back and forth between their two countries, their verses on paper, soaring like songbirds, "each syllable un abrazo, a hug made of words".

In the author's note, Engle describes drawing inspiration from her family's home country of Cuba and the ways families have managed to overcome the travel restrictions keeping them apart.