When We Love Someone We Sing to Them: Cuando Amamos Cantamos

By Ernesto Javier Martínez

WINNER--2019 International Latino Book Award (Best Children's Picture Book in English) WINNER--2019 International Latino Book Award (Best First Book-Children & Youth-Bilingual) 2019 American Library Association "Rainbow Book List" Selection A reclamation of the Mexican serenata tradition, follow the story of a young boy who asks his father if there is a song for a boy who loves a boy. Como reapropiación de la serenata Mexicana, Cuando Amamos Cantamos cuenta la historia de un niño que le pide a su padre que canten una canción para un niño que ama a otro niño. When We Love Someone We Sing to Them reframes a treasured cultural tradition to include LGBTQ experience. In this book, we learn about the Mexican tradition of singing to family and loved ones through one boy who naturally assumes the tradition includes him and his experience.
Watch a tradition expand as limitations are lifted to include everyone, all the way to remembering Xochipilli, the Mesoamerican deity of creativity, song, and dance.
A perfect book to bring tradition and inclusion into the conversation and support our LGBTQ young ones in knowing that they belong and always have, while providing pride in both our Mexican heritage and our LGBTQ culture and history as families.
A bilingual story with illustrations (English/Spanish)