Estas manos: Manitas de mi familia / These Hands: My Family's Hands

Summary of Book

In this heart-warming ode to family, the young narrator compares the hands of family members to plants in the natural world. ""Your hands, the most tender hands! / When I'm scared, / They soothe me,"" she says to her mother. The girl compares her mother's hands to rose petals, which represent tenderness in Latin America.

Her father's hands are strong like the mahogany tree; her siblings' friendly like the blooming oak tree. Grandma In s' are the happiest hands, like tulips that tickle and hug tightly. And Grandpa Juan's are the wisest, like the ceiba tree, considered by many indigenous peoples of Latin America to be the tree of life and wisdom and the center of the universe. His are the hands that teach his granddaughter how to plant and care for the earth and how to play the conga drum.

She promises to give back all the love they have always given her, ""Dad, when your feet get tired, / My hands will not let you fall."" Samuel Caraballo's poetic text is combined with Shawn Costello's striking illustrations depicting loving relationships between family members. An author's note about Latin American symbols will introduce children both to the natural world and the idea that one thing can represent another.

Author Biography

Samuel Caraballo Cruz has been a public servant for many years. He has dedicated a great part of those years to teaching and sharing his language with students, teachers, and parents living in the communities he has served in the United States. He has volunteered his time to helping college students improve their foreign language skills, and he has also served as an interpreter in court cases involving Hispanics.

Caraballo states, “Whatever I do for my fellow man, whether significant or not, I do because of the ideas and spirit of fellowship passed on to me by my parents and members of my wonderful community.” His dedication and hard work have earned him recognition including the Award for Distinguished Service, presented to him by the Virginia Congress of Parents and Teachers in 2001.

Caraballo’s belief in the power of education is evident in a verse of the alma mater he wrote for the students of a rural school in his native Vieques, Puerto Rico: “We love you,” he wrote, referring to the school, “and we’ll forever love you, for you have been, and will always be, where the nobility of mankind is cultivated, an eternal lamp where the thought receives its source of light!”

Caraballo is the author of Estrellita en la ciudad grande / Estrellita in the Big City (Piñata Books, 2008), Mis Papitos: Héroes de la cosecha / My Parents: Heroes of the Harvest (Piñata Books, 2005), Mis abuelos y yo / My Grandparents and I (Piñata Books, 2004) and Estrellita se despide de su isla / Estrellita Says Good-bye to Her Island (Piñata Books, 2002), Caraballo’s first children’s book. It is both a personal account of his childhood experiences and a tribute to immigrants around the world. This tender tale will please all readers, especially those who have experienced separation from their loved ones by time or distance.

Samuel lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia with his wife and family.

Illustrator Biography

Shawn Costello lives in Western Howard County Maryland. Illustrations, portraiture and landscape paintings are on the easel at different times. In her portraits, Shawn seeks to capture an impression that conveys emotion and the spirit within. The same is true with her landscape paintings. The places that she paints are often ones that tell a story or have a human element.

Shawn graduated from the Maryland Institute of Art with a BFA and received her Master’s Degree in Art Education from Towson University near Baltimore. She studied at the Schuler School of Fine Art and with portrait artist, Daniel Greene. She has also taken workshops with artists Tim Bell, Carolyn Anderson, and Daniel Gerhartz. As a member of the Portrait society of America she has had the privilege to attend their conventions and take workshops with some of the top portrait painters of America.

She has illustrated two books for Albert Whitman Company, ""Mommy Far, Mommy Near"" and ""A Bus of Our Own."" Her illustrations for ""A Bus of Our Own"" were chosen for exhibition at the 2002 Bologna Book Fair, Bologna, Italy and also won the New York Coretta Scott King Award. Her other illustrated books can be found on Amazon and includes: “These Hands: My Family’s Hands” and “Private Joel and the Sewell Mountain Seder”. Shawn’s work has also appeared in Cricket and Spider Magazines and as covers for various educational publications. Her prints are available on Etsy and the shop is titled “ PrintsbyShawn”.

Shawn has taught art to all grade levels, in college as well as K-12. In Spring of 2013 she received the HOWIE award (Howard County Outstanding Arts Educator), a competition that represents all of the arts; music, dance, theater, and fine arts from colleges, public and private schools as well as independent community art centers in Howard County.