Grandma's Records
by Eric Velasquez (Author) Eric Velasquez (Illustrator)
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.
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School Library Journal
Gr 1-3--Each year, a boy spends the summer with his grandmother in her apartment in Spanish Harlem listening to her records. Grandma is given two tickets to a live concert by a nephew, a percussionist in a well-known Puerto Rican band. When the lead singer dedicates the last song to her, the child is surprised to see everyone singing "Grandma's special song" ("In My Old San Juan") with eyes closed and a hand placed over the heart. Velasquez was one of the first children's book creators to celebrate and bring light to the Afro-Latinx experience. The companion, Grandma's Gift, won the 2011 Pura Belpre Award.
Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Kirkus
Review quotes
"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 ReviewsEric 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.
SOC044000 - Social Science | Ethnic Studies | Hispanic American Studies
MUS000000 - Music | General
New York
Grandmothers
Music
Latin America
Puerto Ricans
Sound recordings
