Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. 3-8)Ī home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature. Readers can try out a few of the recipes that made this feast so fine, even Hope's surprise: pickles with peppermint stick centers. 'Always add a cup of tradition from your papa's family to a cup from your mama's side.' This is a book to be read leisurely, and there is enough text to give it the time it needs, while the artwork bathes the eyes with its savory colors. 'Sharing food is a good way of sharing family,' Aunt Poogee says to Hope as they sit together on the porch swing in the twilight. Monk's silky narrative and Porter's illustrations, with their light-filled quality of stained glass, create an atmosphere of appealing warmth and a glimpse into what family reunions ought to be like. The meal is a family affair, with traditional recipes with all of the food but the crab cakes raised on the farm. Hope has brought a surprise dish that she would like to see make its way into the long-standing core of family recipes. Like all extended families, it is a mishmash of personalities, and Hope digs right into the proceedings, which hinge on the meal. Hope is traveling with her white father and African-American mother to her Aunt Poogee's farm for a gathering of her mother's family. This sequel to Hope(1999), from the same team, centers on a family feast and a feast of family.

Family by Isabell Monk