My Papi Has a Motorcycle
“When he lifts me onto the smooth black seat his hands don’t feel rough, they don’t feel tired - they feel like all the love he has trouble saying.”
My Papi Has A Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero is a story about a young girl’s love for her father and the community in which she lives. English and Spanish words are woven together to tell the story of Daisy’s city and the people who live there. While she sees that there are changes happening all over her city, she knows her father’s love is never-ending.
To read this story, I had to practice. I am not a Spanish speaker and had to listen to native Spanish speakers slowly sound out some of the words for me. I wanted to get it just right - I wasn’t perfect, but I hope my intention to do so was clear. Doing so made me reflect on how often English speakers will stumble over words from other languages in storytelling without really trying to get it right. Blowing off the unfamiliar words is excused because learning languages just isn’t an American value.
To get the words right, one has to truly listen to learn. Taking the time to listen to someone else is an act of love and respect. Like correctly pronouncing every student’s name or the names of your children’s’ friends and classmates, listening for pronunciation shows care. We love to see books like this that include more than just English - especially when sharing the story of a culture and a community. The language should reflect the subjects, and the reading should be intentional and caring.
This book is a beautiful homage to the immigrant families who worked the citrus groves and the current families that continue to build the community. Every community experiences change over time. My Papi Has A Motorcycle reminds us to consider the histories of our communities and how it affects us today.
Teachers
This book is great for kids from Prek to 3rd grade
After reading My Papi Has a Motorcycle, ask your students to write about the areas of expertise that they and their family members hold. Students could draw, write, or collage to share this information. Post their work in the classroom as a resource for you and for your students. Reflect on this display together to co-write stories of your class as a community.
Some Things to Think About…
In the Author’s note, Quintero asks us to consider these questions:
Who are the people who build our cities and form our communities?
Who are the people who get streets named after them, and who are the people who lay the asphalt?
After considering the above questions, what do you notice? What would you change?
illustrated by Zeke Peña
