San Marcos Public Library

My Papi Has a Motorcycle.

by Isabel Quintero

Book list Daisy Ramona loves riding on the back of her papi's motorcycle. After a long day of work, Papi picks up Daisy, and they zigzag through the streets of their neighborhood, zooming past Tortillería la Estrella and Joy's Market. Daisy loves this time with her papi, but she also notices her neighborhood changing. Don Rudy's Raspados used to be their favorite spot, but it's gone out of business. Quintero tells a beautiful story about a special father-daughter bonding moment, layered with a tale of gentrification impacting their neighborhood. Young readers will relate to Daisy's anticipation to spend time with a loved one and will understand Daisy's concern for her changing community. Peña's dynamic illustrations a mix of digital techniques and watercolors in a muted, tropical palette are packed with action, smiles, tenderness, and resilience. The neighborhood Peña has created with his art fully captures the love Quintero's characters have for the cultural roots of their home. Occasional inset panels and text bubbles in the illustrations add more community voices and details to Daisy's story neighbors greet and cheer for her, dogs go wild as she zooms by. Andrea Montejo's translation in the Spanish edition accurately embraces the sentiment in Quintero's narrative. This is a heartwarming story that centers joy in the midst of looming change. Other Latinx children's books with themes of family and community include Juan Felipe Herrera's Grandma and Me at the Flea (2002) and Maybe Something Beautiful (2016), by F. Isabel Campoy.--Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez Copyright 2019 Booklist

Publishers Weekly When Papi gets home from work in his gray truck, his daughter is ready for their ritual, a nightly motorcycle ride: "I run outside with both of our helmets." Together, they zip through their California city, passing the market, the church, and murals that show "our history-of citrus groves and the immigrants who worked them." The landscape is changing: Papi and his fellow carpenters are building new houses where the groves once stood, and the shaved ice shop has gone out of business. Quintero and Peña, the team behind Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide, conjure up the ride's sights and sounds with sensory immediacy-the girl grasps her father's sawdusty shirt, sun-bleached pinks and oranges convey the lingering heat of evening, and stray cats run in front of the rumbling bike as neighborhood sounds reach the riders. Fresh graphic novel style art offers all the glory of a ride ("VROOOM"), and speech in balloons is a mix of Spanish and English alongside the English-only text. The love between the girl and her father is palpable, but her connection to her city (fleshed out in an author's note about Corona, Calif.) is at the story's heart. Ages 4-8. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus A screaming, bright-blue comet zooms through the streets of Corona, California, in a race against the orange setting sun. A unicorn-decorated purple helmet can't hide the grin of the young girl tightly gripping the waist of her carpenter father, who's hunched over his blazing motorcycle as a comet tail of sawdust streams behind them. Basking in her father's wordless expression of love, she watches the flash of colors zip by as familiar landmarks blend into one another. Changes loom all around them, from the abandoned raspado (snow cone) shop to the housing construction displacing old citrus groves. Yet love fills in the spaces between nostalgia and the daily excitement of a rich life shared with neighbors and family. Quintero's homage to her papi and her hometown creates a vivid landscape that weaves in and out of her little-girl memory, jarring somewhat as it intersects with adult recollections. At the end, her family buys raspados from a handcartare the vendor and defunct shop's owner one and the same? Pea's comic-book-style illustrations capture cultural-insider Mexican-American references, such as a book from Cathy Camper and Ral the Third's Lowrider series and the Indigenous jaguar mask on the protagonist's brother's T-shirt. Dialogue in speech bubbles incorporates both Spanish and English, and the gist of the conversation is easily followed; a fully Spanish edition releases simultaneously.Every girl should be so lucky as to have such a papi. (Picture book. 7-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book When Papi gets home from work, young Daisy grabs their motorcycle helmets, eager to zoom through the neighborhood before the sun goes down. Joyous digital and hand-painted watercolor illustrations capture the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and colors. The text's nuanced alliteration, its use of Spanglish, and the realistic linguistic mix in the illustrations (even the cat says both meow and miau) mark the specificity shaping Daisy's memory-making. Also available in Spanish. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

School Library Journal K-Gr 2-A radiant ode to a young girl's father and her L.A. neighborhood. Every evening, Daisy and her papi snap on their helmets (hers is purple with a unicorn, his a black vintage variety) and begin their ride on his electric blue motorcycle through Corona, CA. At times they "roar past" taquerias and murals, and other times they "cruise," greeting family and neighbors as they pass by. All the while, Daisy absorbs the sights, sounds, and smells of her beloved hometown, imprinting its idiosyncrasies into memory. Daisy's experiences mirror Quintero's childhood memories, recounted through tender language and vivid sensory details. Recalling the motorcycle rides with her papi is an exercise in familial love, but also a way to honor a hometown and present the changes from gentrification. Although the topic is touched upon lightly, its complexity percolates and becomes much more vivid with multiple reads. The illustrations faithfully capture the merriment and love through careful details and a low-key color palette that alludes to warm memories being made and recollected. Peña makes felicitous use of his comics chops, incorporating speech balloons with Spanish phrases, onomatopoeia, and panels to convey movement. Quintero's writing and Peña's art coalesce most beautifully in the infectious look of joy on Daisy's face throughout. VERDICT A book that radiates sheer happiness without shying from reality. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Jessica Agudelo, New York Public Library © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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