AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
"No More Senora Mimi" is about a little girl named Ana and her babysitter.
MEG MEDINA: (Reading) Senora Mimi lives upstairs in Apartment 4C. Every day, Mommy drops me off on her way to work. Senora Mimi has a two-tooth baby named Nelson, and a no-tooth dog named Pancho, who likes buttered crackers as much as I do.
RASCOE: "No More Senora Mimi" is a new children's book from Newbery Medalist Meg Medina. It's inspired, like many of her books, by her life and her own Senora Mimi.
MEDINA: Who I remember just so well. She was sort of heavyset, and she had dyed red hair, and she had a gold tooth in the back, and she had freckles on her hands. And she was a wonderful babysitter - you know, kind of a pain in the neck, the way babysitters can be, right? Like, you could look at the things on her coffee table, but we couldn't touch the things on her coffee table.
RASCOE: Then, when Medina was 5 years old, her relationship with her babysitter changed.
MEDINA: My mother announced to me that my family was going to be arriving from Cuba, (speaking Spanish). And when my mother told me (laughter) that Abuela was coming, I marched myself right up to that apartment. I said, Senora Mimi, I'm very sorry. But, you know, you're out. Abuela's coming. I don't need you anymore. And you know what? She laughed so hard and kissed my head. And the joke was on me ultimately - right? - because Mimi went nowhere. Abuela and Mimi became friends. And she was just part of my whole life forever. And she loved us.
BRITTANY CICCHESE: I knew from past research that Meg's stories are all based a bit on her past experiences. So this is really tricky for me.
RASCOE: Brittany Cicchese illustrated "No More Senora Mimi." For our series, Picture This, she and Meg Medina talked about how they brought Medina's childhood memories to life and why the fictionalized Senora Mimi has no gold teeth.
CICCHESE: Had a hunch that Senora Mimi was a real person, but I did not want to see a photo of her. Because as soon as I read that manuscript the first time, I just had this image of who Senora Mimi was. I could see her smile, the way she braided her hair, the way she walked. I knew that if I saw a photo, it would change it in some way. And I wanted to capture that initial energy.
MEDINA: I love that, Brittany, because Mimi in the book looks nothing like...
CICCHESE: Nothing.
MEDINA: ...The Mimi of real life, and this Mimi, of course, is of now. You just - you drew her so beautifully. Did you find the cultural content challenging at all?
CICCHESE: Yes.
MEDINA: For example, there's Cuban crackers in there that really felt important to me.
CICCHESE: Oh, yeah.
MEDINA: Those Cuban crackers had to be there because that was so signature to breakfast (laughter) - right? - in my life, and the Spanish words and so on. Did you approach that in any sort of specific way?
CICCHESE: Yeah, it was for me, a little intimidating, which is why I greatly appreciated all your feedback and sending me the image of those crackers, which...
MEDINA: I think I did send you those crackers.
CICCHESE: That just made my day. I'm like, OK, I'm going to put these crackers in here, and I am also going to order some off of Amazon, so I can try them because I couldn't find any around here.
MEDINA: They're a little crunchy and dry.
CICCHESE: Yes.
MEDINA: You have to completely slather them in a lot of butter.
CICCHESE: They're so horrible for you, but, I mean, with the butter, they were quite tasty.
MEDINA: Passable. Right. Right, right. I understand. Also, it might help to dip it into very sweet espresso coffee and milk. When I think of breakfast of my childhood, I think of my Cuban crackers and butter and that milky coffee.
CICCHESE: I really wanted it to be a comforting story with lots of warm tones. So I did choose a warm palette and I think it helped that this book takes place during autumn, which is, you know, a time of change as well. I think that echoes the story quite nicely. You'll see a lot of warm glowing yellows and rosy pinks. This is done with the Procreate app. So it's all digital. But my background is in traditional art. So I approached the story very much with that traditional mindset and building up the pieces as if I were working on a real painting.
MEDINA: I can't believe it's digital. It looks so beautiful and so painterly. You know what else? You captured like immediately, I knew you were exactly the right person - it was, like, the emotion. This is a story that is quiet. The change that happens happens quietly inside her like this moment where she can appreciate that she's going to lose something. She's gaining something, she's also going to lose something. There's one spread in there where you have them sitting under the table. That was so tender to me, you got it so exactly right, because that's exactly the moment where she comes to terms with that. It is really lovely.
CICCHESE: Yes. Drawing people has always been my favorite thing to do. So working with a character like Ana, who's just so full of life and energy, and she just has all the feels - so capturing each one of those emotions through these expressions was just - I mean, it was a pure delight because nobody does emotions quite like you in a picture book.
MEDINA: For me, it's a celebration of caretakers and babysitters. So many people raise kids, right? For sure, your parents, but older siblings help raise you, cousins help raise you, you good neighbors help raise you, your teachers help raise you. All of us collectively have this, like, role in helping kids grow up. It feels good to know that there's this modern story for kids right now, but there's a piece of this story that's also about remembering these wonderful women who helped raised me. And, you know, Senora Mimi is not buried very far from my real abuela in Flushing, Queens. It feels like we're paying them honor, you know, we're just honoring their memory.
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RASCOE: That was author Meg Medina and illustrator Brittany Cicchese talking about their new picture book, "No More Senora Mimi." Our series, Picture This, is produced by Samantha Balaban. And for more conversations between authors and illustrators, check out npr.org/picturethis.
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