NANA’S BIG SURPRISE/NANA, ¡QUÉ SORPRESA!

After their grandfather’s death, grandmother Nana comes from Mexico to California to live for a while, and her six grandchildren hope that their family’s construction of a chicken coop for a swarm of new chicks will help her move beyond her loss. The process takes time, however, as the children comfort Nana when she cries at night and as all of them wait for the chicks to mature. Gonzalez’s rich pastels and cartoonish chicks combine with Pérez’s powerful depiction of family love to prevent the story from becoming maudlin or heavy for its audience. As Nana regains her sense of balance, both she and the younger family members accept death as a part of life and decide to build an altar in Tata’s memory before Nana returns to her own home in Mexico. Sweet, realistic, comforting. (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 6-9)