Paulina has had the birthday of her dreams with the gift of a visit to an animal sanctuary, and to make it even better, her whole family gathers for a celebratory dinner at Cocina de Nana. But when Nana starts passing around her famed Cuban picadillo, Paulina turns it down. It’s made from animalitos, like the ones Paulina was visiting earlier in the day. She’d made a promise to those animals and is determined to keep it: she’s become a vegetarian. With a bit of trepidation and ultimately mucho, mucho amor, Paulina discovers what it means to practice your own beliefs while still honoring your family’s history and traditions. Picadillo for Paulina is an accessible, delightful picture book celebration of young eaters’ connections to family, food, and culture.

Ruth Behar is a Newbery Honor and Pura Belpré Award-winning author and MacArthur Genius who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gabriel Frye-Behar is a Brooklyn-based, Cuban American filmmaker, writer, and photographer. Erika Rodriguez Medina is a book publicist and illustrator based in Vancouver, Canada.