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 sueo
Nuestra familia . . .
nos superamos
as individuals
and
together

Mam tells her children a story that began when their pap was a nio, not far from here. Their abuelitas told stories of their antepasados, and their abuelo, a blacksmith, taught their pap how to make art from earth and fire. When abuelo died, pap took all those lessons to heart and crossed la frontera to el norte to follow his sueos. 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-Snchez relays a story of immigration, creativity, and comunidad through a translanguage text that moves naturally from English to espaol and back in a manner that will be familiar to many second and third generations of Latine familiesand evocative to immigrant families of any heritage. Brilliantly brought to life by Devon Holzwarths rich, imaginative illustrations, this warm abrazo of a book features a glossary of Spanish words.