A review by shelbybrigham91
Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina

5.0

Abuela moves in with our main character.It's a change for her as she is sharing her room with Abuela now. Abuela doesn't understand English words, so the granddaughter shows her the pictures in her book. Abuela shows her two important things she brought with her, a feather from a wild parrot, and a photo of her abuelo. She goes to the park with her grandmother to feed the birds but struggles to connect with her because her Spanish isn't good, and her grandmother's English isn't good. They want to share their stories and lives with each other but struggle due to this language barrier. The granddaughter tries teaching the grandmother English words, as the grandmother shares the word for it in Spanish as they cook together. They place word cards around the house to help each other so they can practice and communicate. While out with her mother our main character sees a parrot similar to the feather her grandmother had, and convinces her mother to get the parrot for Abuela to keep her company. They bond as they teach the parrot tricks and words. As they're able to practice they're able to understand each other better and share their lives.