Alyssa Reynoso-Morris on Her Debut Picture Book, ‘Plátanos Are Love,’ and the Power of Storytelling
By Amaris Castillo
Alyssa Reynoso-Morris’ debut picture book begins one morning in an open-air mercado. Vendors stand behind a long table lined with carrots and other vegetables. Wooden crates line the floors below. A young girl named Esme is with her grandmother in search of a few items to make breakfast. It’s here where Abuela tells Esme: “Plátanos are love.”
Her declaration is simple but begs for answers. In what way are plátanos love? Esme, for one, admits that she thought they were food. But Abuela signals that they’re much more than that.
From there, Esme stands on her tippy-toes to reach for the biggest plátanos. She’s fully open to Abuela’s teachings. In Plátanos Are Love – the title of Reynoso-Morris’ Spanglish picture book – Abuela embarks Esme on a journey to understand the ways in which plantains shape Latinx culture. Out on April 11 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, the book is told with great affection and a keen nod to the past and the resilience of ancestors.
“Plátanos Are Love is about plátanos and it’s about food, but at its core core, it’s about love and family and the power of storytelling,” Reynoso-Morris told the Dominican Writers Association.
Reynoso-Morris – a queer storyteller who shares Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage – positions Abuela, Esme and Esme’s little sister in the kitchen as they prepare plátano dishes at home. Readers can almost hear the “crack crack!” as Abuela splits open the green plantains to make mangú and fufú. And later, the “pop pop!” of tostones y patacones frying in the pan. Those are Abuela’s favorite.
But Plátanos Are Love is as much a history lesson as it is a savory story because of flashbacks to the family’s ancestors. The book’s illustrator, Trinidad and Tobago-born Mariyah Rahman, helped breathe a deeper sense of connection to the past through sepia-toned renderings of women preparing plátanos outside. “I had no idea that that’s what she was going to do, but it was magic,” Reynoso-Morris said of Rahman’s illustrations. “It just felt right, to see how she uses color in the way that she did to show the difference between the present and the past. I love it.”
Whenever Abuela cooks with Esme, she reminds her granddaughter that plantains are the food of their ancestors. Reynoso-Morris’ nod to this past was intentional. In college, she studied political science, and said she’s “always been interested in history and how the decisions that people make, and the things that happen, how they affect the future.” That’s always in the back of her mind, she added.
The idea behind Plátanos Are Love took root in 2019. Reynoso-Morris recalled growing excited after reading Freedom Soup by Tami Charles and Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard. She began researching. She noticed many picture books about chicken noodle soup and about potatoes. But she wondered: where were the picture books about plátanos – a major food staple in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America?