4/5

Estrella’s Tia Fortuna is about to leave another home. Having emigrated from Cuba to Miami years before, she is now entering an assisted living facility. Tia Fortuna’s loving memories comfort Estrella and show her that difficult changes can be accepted with grace. Colorful illustrations include Sephardic imagery. (Sydney Taylor Picture Book Notable) ( )

Jewish traditions - Sephardic - Jews from Spain

Family story ( )

In an Author’s Note, the author tells us that this story, while fictional, is based on her own aunt, who is a Sephardic Jew. Sephardic Jews once lived in Spain and were forced to leave in 1492. Some of them moved to Cuba, but after the revolution in 1959, they migrated to Miami. She explains:

“Sephardic Jews never forgot their Spanish ancestry. Elders remain who speak the ancient Spanish from when they lived in Spain centuries ago, a language known as Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, carried through many migrations.”

When the story begins, a little girl named Estrella is visiting her Tia Fortuna as she readies to move from the Seaway building in Miami; builders are coming to tear it down and put up a fancy hotel. Tia Fortuna explains that her home with be a memory just like the home she left in Havana, and that one can always make wonderful new memories.

Tia Fortuna then serves Estrella warm borekas - pastries filled with potatoes and cheese and “esperanza.” She explains why they are filled with hope:

“Because they are the food of your grandfathers’ grandfathers’ grandfathers and your grandmothers’ grandmothers’ grandmothers. They took them from Spain to Turkey to Cuba. Now we eat them here in Miami. . . . We come from people who found hope wherever they went.”

She also explains that she doesn’t need to pack much, because most of what she wants are the memories she carries in her head.

At her new home, which appears to be an assisted living facility, Tia Fortuna shares borekas and makes new friends right away.

Illustrator Devon Holzwarth created upbeat, kid-friendly colorful pictures in gouache, watercolors, and colored pencil.

Evaluation: This book for readers aged 5 and up shows a much-neglected view of the Sephardic Jewish community and culture (as opposed to the more widely-covered Ashkenazi Jewish heritage). The poignant story has good messaging for kids. ( )

Estrella loves to visit her Tía Fortuna, and is sad when she has to leave her little pink house to move into an assisted living facility - a move that echoes her previous move from Cuba to Miami. Tía Fortuna, however, helps Estrella connect to her Sephardic heritage and Ladino language. A beautiful story with a touch of poignancy, and lovely, light illustrations filled with significant details.

See also: Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina ( )