Not Far from Here

A debut author and an award-winning illustrator unite to craft an entirely bilingual ode to the amor, courage, and memories we carry from one generation to the next, from one country to another.

We worked and worked juntos para realizar el sueno Nuestra familia . . . nos superamos as individuals and together

Mama tells her children a story that began when their papa was a nino, not far from here. Their abuelitas told stories of their antepasados, and their abuelo, a blacksmith, taught their papa how to make art from earth and fire. When abuelo died, papa took all those lessons to heart and crossed la frontera to el norte to follow his suenos. There, he worked and overcame barriers, known to many immigrants alike, to forge his own obra maestra: a familia and a future in which anything is possible. Debut author Nydia Armendia-Sanchez relays a story of immigration, creativity, and comunidad through a translanguage text that moves naturally from English to espanol and back in a manner that will be familiar to many second and third generations of Latine families-and evocative to immigrant families of any heritage. Brilliantly brought to life by Devon Holzwarth's rich, imaginative illustrations, this warm abrazo of a book features a glossary of Spanish words.