The young narrator of this deeply felt picture book doesn’t know what her mother means whenever she says “Que Saudade!” To the girl, it sounds like a secret. She learns instead that Mamãe is describing a feeling. “She feels saudade … when she dreams of her mother’s pão de queijo but can’t find the ingredients anywhere. Mamãe says saudade is a strong longing for something you can’t have.” Is her own longing for ice cream saudade? No, Mamãe teasingly explains, that’s just a craving. As the girl thinks about visits to Brazil and time spent with family there—happy memories of playing with cousins; being with the grandparents that she can only visit on the computer for now—and the feeling she experiences “on cold and quiet days,” she realizes she does understand saudade. “I didn’t know that feeling had a name. … Saudade is like a painful blister after a long and beautiful hike—No matter how much it hurts, the memories are always worth it.” The author’s note explains that saudade is a common theme of Brazilian art and literature. Here, its meaning unfolds in a child-centered story grounded in Brazilian culture but accessible to all. Watercolor and digital painting were used to create the soft and warm mixed-media illustrations.

If your heart has ever ached remembering a place or a person, a smell or a taste, then you’ve felt saudade.

Saudade is a Portuguese and Galician word with no perfect translation to English; it’s a strong, melancholy longing for something you once had. Hiking in the hills, a little girl and her Brazilian immigrant mother contemplate what makes them feel saudade. A cool salty breeze miles from the ocean; the smell of Mamãe's perfume; memories of playing with cousins under trees or waterfalls, riding waves with grandparents who are now stuck in the square of a video call.

Though deeply woven through Brazilian music and literature, saudade is a familiar companion to us all. Readers who live far from loved ones or have adopted new homes will especially connect with this exploration of nostalgia and yearning.

An endnote offers author Ana Crespo’s personal story of saudade as a Brazilian immigrant, and a glossary covers other Portuguese words the mother and daughter use. Andre Ceolin’s vivid illustrations, twining with daydreamy wisps of haze, set the perfect mood for this bittersweet, profoundly human story.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection