Mamá's Panza

by Isabel Quintero (Author) Iliana Galvez (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

A body-positive picture book about a young boy's love for his mother and his mother's belly.

Everyone has a panza--it can be big and round, soft and small, or somewhere in between. But a young boy's favorite panza of all is Mamá's. Her panza is capable of remarkable things, and she loves it as an important part of herself. Her panza was also his first home. Even before he was born, it cradled and held him. When he's feeling shy and needs a place to hide or when he wants somewhere to rest during a bedtime story, Mamá's panza is always there.

With affirming text by Isabel Quintero and vivid art by Iliana Galvez, Mamá's Panza is a young boy's love letter to his mother, along with a celebration of our bodies and our bellies.

Select format:
Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

A sweet, body-positive celebration of motherhood and its physical expression.

ALA/Booklist

This body-positive book celebrates the wonder, love, and strength our bodies allow us to express.

Publishers Weekly

A child expresses appreciation for a favorite belly--their Mamá's panza--in this tender, body-neutral telling. Though panzas can be "big, round, soft, or small and hard, or somewhere in between," everyone has one, and the child narrator's loves their mother's best. It was the youth's "first home" ("a big round garden" that communicated, "Here we are. Make some room. We've got growing to do"), and the scene of first communications between them. Now, Mamá's panza is "a drum I like to play"--an action that precedes "my panza's turn to be a drum," and a loving game of chase between the two. Galvez's uncomplicated digital illustrations render the duo, who cue as Latinx, amid blooming flower motifs in largely domestic scenes that underline the book's comfortable interpersonal feel. A Spanish edition publishes simultaneously. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes



Isabel Quintero
Isabel Quintero is an award-winning writer and the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, her first YA novel, was the recipient of multiple awards, including the Tomás Rivera Award, the California Book Award Gold Medal, and the Morris Award for Debut YA Novel. She is also the author of chapter books and a non-fiction YA graphic biography, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide, which was awarded the Boston Globe Horn Book Award. Most recently, My Papi Has a Motorcycle, earned the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award, the Pura Belpré Illustration Honor Award, the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award, and many other recognitions.

Iliana Galvez is a queer Latinx illustrator, mother, and pug whisperer born and raised in the San Fernando Valley who is currently based in Houston. She started her Instagram page @GrowMija as a love letter to her baby sister, Chachis, to show her art that looked like her and to let her know how amazing she is.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780593616420
Lexile Measure
530
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Kokila
Publication date
March 26, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV013060 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Parents
JUV039140 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance
JUV011030 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - Hispanic & Latino
Library of Congress categories
Fiction
Mothers and sons
Love
Stomach
Picture book

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