"Una merenda azeremos," Abuela says to her grandson. "It means 'we will cook together' in our secret language." Can a language be secret? The next time the boy visits Abuela, he surprises her with a few words.
"Una merenda azeremos," Abuela says to her grandson. "But I don't understand," says the boy. "It means 'we will cook together' in our secret language," says Abuela. That evening, Mamá explains that the Spanish Jews took the Ladino language with them when they were forced to leave their homelands in Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. "Can I learn the secret language?" the boy asks.
Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year Selection 2026Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Books of the Year 2025
