Grandma's Records

by Eric Velasquez, Eric Velasquez (Illustrator)

Overview

Coretta Scott King and John Steptoe New Talent Award winner Eric Velasquez shines in the perfect picture book to read with grandparents.

Every summer, Eric goes to live with his grandmother in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) while his parents work. Through the long hot days, Grandma fills her apartment with the blaring horns and conga drums of Bomba y Plena, salsa, and merengue-the music she grew up with in Puerto Rico-sharing her memories and passions with Eric.

But Eric sees Grandma in a new light when she gets them tickets to hear their favorite band in concert. The music sounds so different than it does at home on their scratchy records. And then the lead singer serenades Grandma right in front of the whole audience!

Join Eric Velasquez on a magical journey through time and across cultures, as a young boy's passion for music and art is forged by a powerful bond between generations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802776600
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Series:	Rise and Shine
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.05(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	780L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Eric Velasquez won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for his illustrations in The Piano Man. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts and now lives in Hartsdale, New York, with his wife, Deborah.

Editorial Reviews

Velasquez proves himself adept at evoking time and place as well as a loving family bond. The narrator spends his boyhood summers at his grandmother's apartment in Spanish Harlem, where Grandma introduces him to the sounds of merengue and conga, dances with him and tells stories of growing up in Puerto Rico.” —Publishers Weekly.

“This heartfelt story has a melody all its own.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

In his debut as an author, Velasquez, illustrator of The Sound That Jazz Makes (2000) tells an entertaining first-person story (presumably autobiographical) of an unnamed Puerto Rican boy in the '50s who spends every summer with his grandmother in Spanish Harlem. The boy draws in his sketchbook as Grandma Carmen tells stories of her childhood in Puerto Rico and plays her much-loved records, especially her favorite song that she always listens to with one hand raised and her other hand over her heart. When the narrator and his grandma attend a concert by the most famous band in Puerto Rico, the band dedicates this special song to Grandma Carmen, and the audience members also listen with one hand raised and the other over their hearts. We learn along with the young narrator that "En Mi Viejo San Juan" is special to those of Puerto Rican heritage, capturing their longing for their homeland. The story ends with the grown narrator, now an artist in his own studio (painting this work's cover), remembering his grandma and playing her favorite song on his modern sound system—with his hand over his heart. Several Spanish sentences and phrases are worked into the text (with English translations), and the words to Grandma's song are also included in both Spanish and English. Velasquez is a talented painter whose illustrations capture the love between generations and the excitement of attending a live concert and meeting professional musicians. Thoughtful details add to the flavor of the period; tiny phonograph album covers fill the endpapers, historical artifacts to today's readers. Although we can't hear Grandma's song, this heart-felt story has a melody of its own. (author's note) (Picturebook. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews