[MUSIC- Luscious Jackson: You and Me]

Tiffany Hansen: This is All Of It, I'm Tiffany Hansen in for Alison Stewart. Although summer officially began last week of course with the solstice, for a lot of kids summer starts at the end of school today. Today is the last day of classes for New York City public schools. In honor of that, we are sharing some of our favorite new kid's books that we think might be a good ad to the summer reading list. First, we have Karina González, author of the book Churro Stand. The Story follows a Young Latina girl named Santi. Did I say that right, Karina?

Karina González: Lucia.

Tiffany Hansen: Okay. Who heads with her mom to work one day, the mother is a street vendor selling churros in Union Square. After the first day, well it's a little unsuccessful at first but there's bad weather, storms, but it does turn around. Joining us to talk about the book is Karina Gonzalez. Hi Karina, welcome.

Karina González: Hi Tiffany. Thank you for inviting me.

Tiffany Hansen: All right, so let's talk about the story. You said it was inspired by your mom, is that right?

Karina González: Yes. Well, the book Churro Stand is also inspired by the street vendors of New York City. I am a school-based speech-language pathologist in Brooklyn. One day when I was coming home from work, I noticed a mother selling churros inside of Brooklyn subway station. It was actually Broadway Junction with her daughter clutched to her side, and in that moment I saw my mom and me. I felt so connected to this stranger and her baby.

I thought about all the times that I accompanied my mother to work on holidays and weekends without understanding why she worked so much. It was because she wanted to help me attend private school and to pay for my beloved dance classes. Both of my parents worked extremely hard. My mother, in particular during my childhood, worked at times between four and six jobs. I remember as a child looking at her with such awe, how could she work so much? How does she have the energy?

When I moved to New York City, I saw the multitude of people here, who also have that same zeal, and ambitiousness, and want to succeed and provide for their families. Street vendors of New York City really inspired this story, and also my hardworking parents, particularly my mother, Marisa.

Tiffany Hansen: The characters in the book are mother-daughter. Their names are?

Karina González: Mommy is Mommy, Mama and the daughter is Lucia. Lucia also has an older brother and a story named Santiago, Santi for short.

Tiffany Hansen: Got it. Wow, how did you make that leap from your day job, speech therapist or speech pathologist into writing books?

Karina González: It felt so natural, as a speech-language pathologist, I work with children from pre-K to 8th grade, and I read picture books all the time with my students. I remember this light bulb moment when I saw my students reading a book that I chose for them that they related with. It was actually My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero, illustrated by Zeke Pena. I saw my students' eyes light up when they saw this book and they said, "Oh, my Papi works in construction," or, "That looks like my family, and they speak Spanish just like mine."

I thought wow, it's really important that children not only see themselves in picture books but see their experiences. When I began this work as a speech-language pathologist, Hurricane Maria happened in Puerto Rico. That also inspired me to come up with a picture book of my own. My first picture book is called The Coquíes Still Sing / Los Coquíes Aún Cantan. I've continued to write picture books. I was inspired by my students, really, at the end of the day to write picture books on my own.

Tiffany Hansen: You released this book with a Spanish version as well?

Karina González: Yes.

Tiffany Hansen: Okay. Talk about why that's important for you.

Karina González: That's definitely important because when I was growing up, not only did I not find my culture represented in picture books, but I did not really find picture books in Spanish. Now it's gotten a lot better. The picture book industry, now there's a lot more representation and a lot more books available for children and families in other languages. Because I'm a bilingual speech-language pathologist, there's still that myth that families here, that they shouldn't speak in their home language, that they should speak in English.

That's a myth, and I want to encourage parents, families, educators, to introduce picture books in the languages of the child as well. That was really important for me for this book to also be published in Spanish.

Tiffany Hansen: You mentioned this, the vendors, and the culture around vendors in New York City. For kids who aren't in this city who might pick up this book, it's a vibrant world. How did you think about portraying that for kids who might not be familiar with it?

Karina González: Well, Krystal Quiles is the illustrator and I think she did a fantastic job with illustrating New York City, the bustling nature of the streets of Manhattan, and also the representation of the people of New York City. We see people of all different walks of life, all different cultures and races. I think it's important for children, no matter if they're from Wisconsin, or California, or from New York State, to see that diversity exists and it's important for children to be exposed to it.

Tiffany Hansen: Can you read a little bit for us?

Karina González: Absolutely, I would love to.

Tiffany Hansen: All right.

Karina González: The book is called Churro Stand in Spanish, El Carrito de Churros, written by me, Karina Nicole González, and illustrated by my very dear friend, Krystal Quiles.

The scent of buttery vanilla swirls through our kitchen. Cinnamon sugar coats my fingertips, crunch, pop, sizzle, churros. Mama's work begins before the sun is up. Each churro is made with love and destined for a hungry belly. Her hands move quickly like a magician, her ladel, a magic wand. Praxima tahina.

"Today will be caluroso," she says. Beads of sweat sparkle on her face. She glides into her squishy shoes and I imagine her walking on clouds instead of the hard city streets. When the churros cool off, Santiago tucks them away. "Lucia, watch how I do it," he says. "Vamos," Mama beckons. She rolls out a gigantic suitcase filled with churros, a treasure chest. Santi carries a basket of napkins and chocolate sauce, and I cradle our lunchbox. Praxima tahina.

Outside, New York City awakens. Buses screech and motorcycles zoom by. We rush down the sidewalk and into the dark subway tunnel. The train races over the East River and into Manhattan, "ba-doom, ba-doom." This stop is Union Square. Finally, we arrive. Mama grins as she picks up her push cart, a shiny metallic chariot.

Tiffany Hansen: Oh nice, nice. Thank you. You mentioned your illustrator. Obviously, we can't show the pictures on the radio, but I'm curious how that creative process was for you in terms of developing the story and how you feed off each other in that process.

Karina González: Absolutely. Well, I'm so excited to talk about the illustrator of the book, because she happens to be not only an incredible illustrator, but also a very dear friend of mine. When I discovered her other picture book her first one The ABCs of AOC which she illustrated, I contacted her and we found out that we were born in the same hospital, four months apart, and we only lived a few blocks away from each other in New York City. It felt very serendipitous.

Krystal and I, we work really well together. We are very collaborative in our picture book process, and I feel she understands the purpose to why I write. Whenever she illustrates anything I write, I feel like she takes it to another level, and so much so that when I see her illustrations, they make me very emotional. I've cried when I've seen the first drafts of both The Coquíes Still Sing and Churro Stand. I don't really tell Krystal much, she does her own thing, but when we were working on this book I told Krystal that I was thinking of a dreamy dessert-like palette. This book is exactly that. It makes you think of everything sweet and delicious, including churros.

Tiffany Hansen: Exactly. All right, well, before I let you go, there is something else unique about this book and there's a little call to action in there. Tell us about that.

Karina González: I have admired the street vendor projects work for many years now. Their work has also informed me and when I was researching this picture book. They do a lot of advocacy work on behalf of street vendors here in New York City. I was actually invited to their offices a few months ago, and I collected some of copies of Churro Sand First Street vendors. They raise awareness about the plight that they experience on the day-to-day.

Right now, there are 20,000 street vendors who are waiting on a waitlist to get a permit in New York City, and there's currently a cap on permits in New York City. I believe picture books can be tools for social change and raising awareness in our communities. That's why whenever I write a picture book, I think it's really important to have a call to action to take the book to another place and to talk about how this book relates to our realities today.

Tiffany Hansen: The book is Churro Stand. It was written by our guest, Karina N. Gonzalez. Karina, thank you so much.

Karina González: Thank you, Tiffany.

 

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