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A review by mldavisreads
All You Knead Is Love by Tanya Guerrero
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Middle grade contemporary realistic fiction. Alba is being sent across the world to live in another country with a grandmother she barely knows. Her father is abusive, and her mother sees sending Alba away to her own mother in Barcelona, Spain as the best way to keep Alba safe and allow her a fresh start. Alba is understandably a mess of emotions-- relief to be away from her father, fear for her mother, uncertainty about living in another country where she doesn't speak the language. But when her grandmother sees her at the airport and welcomes her with a warm embrace, Alba thinks that just maybe she'll be okay.
Abuela Lola is her grandmother, who lives in Spain but is very much part of the Filipino community there, which results in Alba not only hearing Spanish but also Tagalog. From the bread baker to the pigeon feeder to the gay couple that lives in the building, Alba gets introduced to a number of people in her grandmother's community. Luckily she also meets Marie and Joaquim, who are closer to her own age and become her friends. As Alba tries to process the trauma from her past, she finds solace in baking bread with Toni, who is a family friend. She likes the precision of measuring bread in grams, the hours of being up while the world is sleeping, and the benefit of having fresh bread to enjoy. But when she finds out that Toni's bakery is in trouble financially, she feels like her whole new world is slipping away from her. Can she help save the bakery? Will she be okay without it?
I immediately got pulled into Alba's story. I love stories set in other countries, so I was a big fan of the Barcelona setting. I also loved the family Abuela Lola had built around herself and how easily they welcomed Alba to be a part of it. While the story does deal with tough issues, none of the abuse actually happens on the page (Alba has some flashbacks of her parents, but nothing takes place during the story's narrative). Not a light-and-fluffy read but still a feel-good, hopeful story that just might have you craving some good sourdough.
Abuela Lola is her grandmother, who lives in Spain but is very much part of the Filipino community there, which results in Alba not only hearing Spanish but also Tagalog. From the bread baker to the pigeon feeder to the gay couple that lives in the building, Alba gets introduced to a number of people in her grandmother's community. Luckily she also meets Marie and Joaquim, who are closer to her own age and become her friends. As Alba tries to process the trauma from her past, she finds solace in baking bread with Toni, who is a family friend. She likes the precision of measuring bread in grams, the hours of being up while the world is sleeping, and the benefit of having fresh bread to enjoy. But when she finds out that Toni's bakery is in trouble financially, she feels like her whole new world is slipping away from her. Can she help save the bakery? Will she be okay without it?
I immediately got pulled into Alba's story. I love stories set in other countries, so I was a big fan of the Barcelona setting. I also loved the family Abuela Lola had built around herself and how easily they welcomed Alba to be a part of it. While the story does deal with tough issues, none of the abuse actually happens on the page (Alba has some flashbacks of her parents, but nothing takes place during the story's narrative). Not a light-and-fluffy read but still a feel-good, hopeful story that just might have you craving some good sourdough.