The Filipino American girl in this lyrical picture book describes summer by smells and tastes she associates with her grandmother’s visit. The smells of summer include the sampaguita soap Lola uses, the mango jam she makes, the cassava cake covered with custard in the oven, the “pinches of garlic and sharp vinegar” when they roll out lumpia. But it also smells like tennis balls, and chlorine at the pool, and sunscreen at the beach. The tastes of summer include “brown-sugar bananas on a balmy evening, just like Dad always ate when he was a kid.” When her grandmother finally returns to the Philippines, the senses of summer are already changing, “until finally it smells like freshly sharpened pencils, a stiff new backpack, and the last sweet bits of summer—in Lola’s mango jam.” Lively gouache and digital illustrations full of movement and light capture cultural details and the warmth of love and family, both implied and expressed in the narrative.
(Ages 4-7)