WE'RE ALL FAMILIA

Make way for the familia; there’s a lot of them.

The Nickelodeon animated series makes a jump to join the Loud House graphic novels with the first installment of a collection of vignettes focusing on the lives of the Mexican American Casagrande family and their friends. The Santiagos—Ronnie Annie, her brother, Bobby, and their mom, Maria, née Casagrande—have a learning curve when it comes to living with their extended family. Recently arrived at the Casagrande home, Ronnie Annie and Bobby now get to help out at the family mercado and babysit their younger cousins. Although they enjoy helping out, they sometimes come up with creative ways to avoid missing out on the fun to be had elsewhere. The rest of Ronnie Annie and Bobby’s world is populated by a racially diverse cast. While the stories incorporate some tropes on Mexican customs and Mexican families, like the abuelita with traditional home remedies and the love for everything spicy, they are portrayed as celebrations of their cultural diversity. The graphic novel’s frontmatter provides the lyrics to the show’s theme song along with four pages of useful character description, giving some brief background information on relationships among the characters and their personalities. The backmatter includes an editor’s note and a series of Q&As with some of the #ownvoices showrunners and voice actors of the TV show.

A silly, enjoyable read.