Plátanos Go with Everything by

Description:

Paletero Man meets Fry Bread in this vibrant and cheerful ode to plátanos, the star of Dominican cuisine, written by award-winning poet Lissette Norman, illustrated by Sara Palacios, and translated by Kianny N. Antigua.

Plátanos are Yesenia’s favorite food. They can be sweet and sugary, or salty and savory. And they’re a part of almost every meal her Dominican family makes. Stop by her apartment and find out why plátanos go with everything—especially love!

Reviews:

LISSETTE

gold plátanos-colored digital illustrations capture the dance of life mid-spin. — Publishers Weekly

About the Authors:

LISSETTE NORMAN is a poet and author of the picture books My Feet Are Laughing and Plátanos Go with Everything. She is also co-author of the picture books, Until Someone Listens (w/ Estela Juarez) and On the Line: My Story of Becoming the First African-American Rockette (w/ Jennifer Jones). Lissette received her BA in English at SUNY-Binghamton and currently lives in New York City. Visit her at www.lissettenorman.com.

“Yesenia takes readers on a sensory and culinary journey. Bright, inviting illustrations welcome readers into the warm embrace of family and food.” — Kirkus Reviews

Prompted by a family’s love of plátanos, this simile-laden embrace of Dominican culture twines food and story. Norman works this ode into a well-rooted family story that expands upon the food’s power as a “magical cure,” a “superpower,” and a “fiesta.” Palacios’s green and

SARA PALACIOS is the recipient of the 2012 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor for her work on Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/ Marisol McDonald no combina. A native of Mexico, Sara graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City with a degree in digital graphic techniques and went on to earn BFA and MFA degrees in illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She works with a variety of media such as collage, ink, and digital artwork.

‘Across the Spider-Verse’ and the Latino legacy of Spider-Man

father – an ex-con who had turned his life around – and Puerto Rican mother in Brooklyn.

How Morales’ race and ethnicity would play into the stories has been a point of contention. As English professor Jorge J. Santos, Jr. argues in the collection “Mixed-Race Superheroes,” the first comics series featuring Morales “barely makes any mention of Miles’s ethnicity.” He didn’t seem to speak Spanish, nor did he have any Puerto Rican or Latino friends. He even resisted being seen as a Black Spider-Man. That somewhat changed in the following series, which came out in 2018 and was written by Saladin Ahmed and drawn by Javier Garrón. In December 2022, Cody Ziglar, a Black comic writer, took over as the head writer of Morales’ story.

Latino representation in the Spider-Verse is still somewhat lacking. Araña, a Mexican-Puerto Rican Spider-Girl conceived in 2004, is the only other major Latino Spidey character.

Marvel has tried to highlight Latino diversity in its other comics. In 2021, the comics publisher released an entire collection showcasing Latino characters titled “Marvel’s Voices: Comunidades #1.”

The sequel to “Into the Spider-Verse” is sure to make viewers of color in the U.S. cheer. As Latino media scholar Isabel Molina-Guzmán continued from page 9 argues, while race complicates Hollywood casting and writing, Black and Latino viewers reacted very positively to Morales. But she insists that the movie also invites longtime fans and audiences of all backgrounds “to stand in Miles Morales’s space” and root for the mixed-race teen trying to save the world.

To me, that’s what makes superhero films starring characters of color so compelling. These characters are, in many senses, outcasts searching for community – in their real lives and in costume. As Frank, the comics scholar, notes, these differences can lead to feelings of alienation.

But they can also be a source of empowerment.

REGINA MARIE MILLS is Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M University, who specializes in U.S. Multi-Ethnic Literatures, specifically Latinx and African Diaspora literature and media. Her first book, to be published in 2024 with University of Texas Press, will be part of the “Latinx: The Future Is Now” series. “AfroLatinx Life Writing: U.S. AfroLatinidades in Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries” examines a century’s worth of AfroLatinx life writing to examine how AfroLatinxs have used life writing to navigate distorted visibilities and write against narratives of mestizaje.