In this touching autobiographical prequel to Grandma’s Records (2004), Velasquez recalls a special Christmas vacation during his childhood when he stayed with his grandmother in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem). Eric accompanies his grandmother to the neighborhood shops as she purchases the ingredients for her special Christmas Eve dish, pasteles. In turn, she accompanies her grandson to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of a school assignment to view its newly acquired painting, Juan de Pareja, by Diego Velásquez. The realistic oil paintings reveal a strong and stylish grandmother of great character and a polite child who is thrilled with his grandmother’s Christmas gift of a sketchbook and set of colored pencils. The sweetly understated story has Spanish words and sentences skillfully woven into the text throughout with translations provided in parentheses. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-9)
