I'll Go and Come Back by Rajani LaRocca

I'll Go and Come Back by Rajani LaRocca and illustrated by Sara Palacios is a book I needed last August.  A young girl and her family travel home to India for the first time since she was a baby to visit extended family. It's very different from home and we watch her navigate this visit. Her Sita Pati (grandmother) doesn't speak much English and together they find ways to connect with each other. They connect through art, market shopping, games, cooking, and reading. 

As all trips do, this one comes to an end and the little girl says goodbye to her Sita Pati. Sita Pati asks, "Will you go and come?" This is the phrase I needed last August when I moved my oldest daughter to Colorado. Every trip I am lost finding a different word than goodbye at the airport drop off fighting tears. 

Sita Pati visits the little girl a year later and together they navigate her a different place for her doing the same things they did in India. Sara Palacios illustrations show love and joy in each facial expression making this family an easy one to connect to and feel a part of.

I'm thinking this is the perfect book for a writer's notebook entry about ways to say goodbye. I think it will also guide discussion about families and living apart from each other.

                Thank you Candlewick Press for this sneak peak. Just published April 2022.