A Gift from Abuela

by Cecilia Ruiz

Overview

In her first book for children, Cecilia Ruiz illuminates how things can change — and the importance of holding on to our dearest relationships when they do.

The first time Abuela holds Nina, her heart overflows with tenderness. And as Nina grows up, she and Abuela spend plenty of time together. Abuela can’t help thinking how much she’d like to give Nina a very special treat, so she saves a little bit of her money every week — a few pesos here, a few pesos there. When the world turns upside down, Abuela’s dream of a surprise for Nina seems impossible. Luckily, time spent together — and the love Abuela and Nina have for each other — could turn out to be the very best gift of all. With a soft and subtle hand, author-illustrator Cecilia Ruiz draws from her own history to share a deeply personal tale about remembering what’s most important when life starts to get in the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763692674
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	08/07/2018
Pages:	38
Sales rank:	372,676
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Cecilia Ruiz is an illustrator and graphic designer with an MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is the author-illustrator of The Book of Memory Gaps. Born in Mexico City, Cecilia Ruiz now lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

…Cecilia Ruiz captures the particular tenderness of grandmothers in…her first book written expressly for young children. Ruiz's The Book of Memory Gaps (2015) and The Book of Extraordinary Deaths (2018) are dazzlingly Goreyesque in their cataloging of suggestive memory disorders and evocative deaths from the seventh century B.C. to the present. A Gift From Abuela, with its block-printed illustrations in muted colors, is more modest in its storytelling and heartwarming in its message, though Ruiz still manages to capture complex social realities (the economic crisis in Mexico in the early 1990s, the alienation of older adults).

The New York Times Book Review - Benjamin Anastas

05/28/2018
This family story by Ruiz (The Book of Memory Gaps) unfolds in Mexico, where Abuela and Nina, grandmother and granddaughter, enjoy small pleasures like making papel picado (paper-cutout banners), and their very favorite activity: “Every Sunday, they would sit quietly in the park, eat pan dulce, and watch the people pass by.” Abuela begins to save peso notes, planning to buy something special for Nina—but Nina grows up, Abuela grows older, and a newly issued currency renders the savings valueless. A surprise visit by Nina one day finds a new use for the devalued pesos and an affirmation of the joy the characters share. To accompany her tale, Ruiz creates folk-naif woodcut-style illustrations in muted shades of blue, gray, rust, and mustard, evoking old posters and faded peso notes. The story traces how time shifts family situations, and—a point not commonly taken up in picture books—the way people’s economic circumstances can change in ways they can’t plan for or control. But Ruiz’s most important message is that love survives no matter what. Ages 4–8. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The story traces how time shifts family situations, and—a point not commonly taken up in picture books—the way people’s economic circumstances can change in ways they can’t plan for or control. But Ruiz’s most important message is that love survives no matter what.
—Publishers Weekly

Ruiz elevates a standard tale about the loving bond between a grandmother and granddaughter, Abuela and Niña, with historically significant and culturally relevant detail...Against fickle materialism and wealth, Ruiz demonstrates how family bonds and love remain steady, unbreakable, and are indeed our greatest gift. lettycia terrones
—The Horn Book

Beautiful and soft pastel colored illustrations decorate every page and bring the papel picado and the homes and neighborhoods to life. Filled with lovely illustrations and the all-too-true message that “sometimes life just gets in the way,” this story seems to be going in different directions, and ultimately ends abruptly and leaves readers yearning for a little bit more.
—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

08/01/2018
PreS-Gr 1—Ever since Niña was born, she and Abuela have loved spending time together, making papel picado, and especially eating pan dulce in the park every Sunday. As Niña grows older, Abuela puts away the pesos she can in order to buy Niña a special gift. As time goes on, things change—not only between Abuela and Niña, but in all of Mexico as well. Niña spends more time with her friends, and when the currency in Mexico changes, Abuela's pesos are no longer worth anything, and she sometimes has difficulty gathering coins to set aside. When Niña visits Abuela, she finds the house dusty and lonely, and decides to clean it up and surprise Abuela. When she finds the pesos set aside, Abuela tells her about the special gift she had wanted to give her. Using the paper money, they decide to make beautiful papel picado together, and go back to their favorite way of spending Sundays: eating pan dulce in the park. Beautiful and soft pastel colored illustrations decorate every page and bring the papel picado and the homes and neighborhoods to life. Filled with lovely illustrations and the all-too-true message that "sometimes life just gets in the way," this story seems to be going in different directions, and ultimately ends abruptly and leaves readers yearning for a little bit more. VERDICT An additional purchase.—Selenia Paz, Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX

School Library Journal

2018-06-19
Grandma and Niña dance, sing, laugh, and eat pan dulce in the park together. But one day the child forgets about her grandmother as school and friends take precedence. At the same time, the Mexican economy worsens, and suddenly the money Abuela has been saving for her granddaughter's special gift is worthless. Niña visits after a long absence only to find Abuela not home. Seeing the stack of dirty dishes, the layer of dust, and overflowing trash bin, the young girl cleans the house. Spotting a spiderweb-draped clay pot on the fridge, she opens it to discover useless old pesos. When Abuela returns, she and Niña embrace, make papel picado out of the old bills, and eat pan dulce in the park. Ruiz's simplistic story makes almost no sense from the beginning. No parents are ever in evidence, so many readers will assume that Abuela is Niña's sole guardian. Then, suddenly, the girl lives somewhere else and no longer comes around—even though she lives close enough to visit on her own. Abuela puts away a paltry 20 pesos each week, but the jar is miraculously filled with large bills (these are collaged into the illustration). When Abuela no longer has extra money to set aside, she forgets about the jar and fails to exchange the contents for the new official currency. The disarray in which Abuela leaves her house will strike many as hard to believe. Ruiz's muted multimedia prints are charming; the story is not. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews