fiction Archives - Page 248 of 719

The Promise Basket
by Bill Richardson (Author) and Slavka Kolesar (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: A stone when it’s thrown can damage, can break, but nothing can shatter the promise I make.

So begins the poem a mother writes on a scrap of paper. She wraps the paper around a stone and places it in a basket to give to her daughter on her first birthday. They are poor, but the mother is determined that gifts will be given when gifts need giving. She keeps her promise, and the Promise Basket, too.

Every time there is a need for gifts, the mother finds a pretty stone to tie up with paper and ribbon, and gives it to her daughter in the basket. She continues the tradition over the years until her daughter has a baby of her own . . .

Snippet:

May Your Life Be Deliciosa
by Michael Genhart (Author) and Loris Lora (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Each year on Christmas Eve, Rosie’s abuela, mamá, tía, sister, and cousins all gather together in Abuela’s kitchen to make tamales–cleaning corn husks, chopping onions and garlic, roasting chilis, kneading cornmeal dough, seasoning the filling, and folding it all–and tell stories.

Snippet: “What is the recipe?” I ask. Abuela laughs.

“It is in my heart, Rosie. I use mis ojos, my eyes, to measure. Mis manos, my hands, to feel. Mi boca, my mouth, to taste. My abuela gave it to me, and I am giving it to you.”