Description
Teaching Guide for My Tata's RemediesA bilingual story of family and traditional wisdom: Tata teaches grandson Aaron natural remedies through healing neighbors and family.
Aaron has asked his grandfather Tata to teach him about the healing remedies he uses. Tata is a neighbor and family elder. People come to him all the time for his soothing solutions and for his compassionate touch and gentle wisdom. Tata knows how to use herbs, teas, and plants to help each one. His wife, Grandmother Nana, is there too, bringing delicious food and humor to help Tata's patients heal. An herbal remedies glossary at the end of the book includes useful information about each plant, plus botanically correct drawings.
Here is Roni talking about her new book on Tucson's KGUN9!
Kirkus Reviews
Rivera-Ashford offers another semiautobiographical and child-friendly recounting of the importance of sharing intergenerational wisdom, this time accompanied by Castro L.’s expressive illustrations. … So many cultural treasures are dependent on word-of-mouth transmission, and this story encourages grandparents to lovingly pass on their knowledge to eager grandchildren and family members.
Booklist Online
Remarkable, realistic watercolor illustrations reveal the emotions felt by the sufferers, while the bilingual text conveys Tata’s expertise in alleviating their discomfort and in teaching his grandson about natural remedies. … An illuminating glimpse into a tradition not often addressed in children’s literature. —Maryann Owen
Smithsonian Book Dragon Blog
In our overprescribed, overstimulated, overscheduled lives, author Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford reminds us about family traditions, cross-cultural and inter-generational support, building community, and taking the time to share, listen, and heal one another. … Illustrator Antonio Castro L.’s signature style – minutely detailed, meticulously thorough, richly colored – enhances the realism of Rivera-Ashford’s story. —Terry Hong
Midwest Book Review
My Tata’s Remedies is a beautiful bicultural book presenting healing herb lore laced with love in an Hispanic tradition, with roots in the American Southwest.
Edible Baja Arizona
In both English and Spanish, the book is practical and useful, as well as entertaining for children. — Molly Kincaid
Kiss The Book
Told in both Spanish and English, this book is a great introduction to natural healing practices and the use of medicinal plants. —Lisa Morey
Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs
In this beautifully constructed book, the topic of traditional natural medicine takes center stage … Roni Rivera-Ashford portrays a loving intergenerational relationship between Tata Gus and Aaron, one in which wisdom and knowledge are patiently passed down from grandfather to grandson.
De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children
Rather than a typical European “beginning-conflict-resolution” children’s story that tells rather than shows, this beautiful book shows how oral teaching of traditional herbal remedies is transmitted across generations of community. —Beverly Slapin
Andrew Weil, MD
This charming little book will introduce young readers to safe and effective natural remedies from the native traditions of the American Southwest. A good way to learn about the healing power of plants.