May 9, 2025
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I see a kid on the cover of a book adjusting her tie with a confident smile? Ya girl is hooked. This is Olivia Abtahi’s debut picture book with one of my favorite illustrators, Monica Arnaldo. You’ll remember Monica from her book Mr. S. Cecelia is a special kid with two full-time jobs. Being a soccer-playing kid AND being her parents' interpreter. Her parents speak Spanish, and Cecelia ends up going all over town to help translate. She helps at the DMV, the doctor's office, and anytime her parents need a translator. Nobody really talks about her job as an interpreter, and she works hard at it.
But when a parent-teacher conference helps Cecelia realize she’s gotten waaay too tired and overwhelmed, she realizes she needs to be the one to ask for help. Her parents are wonderful, understanding, and support her needs to be more kid and less interpreter. She still helps out, but it’s not her full-time job. And what’s more, she gets a lot of thanks, and everyone talks about her skills!
Bits and Pieces: The art was created using watercolors and crayons. I loved the softness of the illustrations and Cecelia’s bright, oversized green suit. The intercom on her desk was hilarious, and her busily looking over papers and drinking coffee was so cute.
Not Sure About: You have to feel for a kid that works this hard!
Favorite Part: The speech bubbles were very cool because the language matched with the color of the bubble, so yellow would be Spanish, Blue would be English, and we got some Persian in pink. When the languages were mixed, the bubbles would get a tie-dye formation of the two colors. Visionary!
