Tia Isa Wants a Car by 
Meg Medina (Author)Meg Medina writes picture books, middle grade novels, and teen fiction. Her work features strong Latinx characters, and it examines the places where culture, family and growing up intersect.
Her work has earned several distinctions, including the 2019 Newbery Medal for Merci Suárez Changes Gears (Candlewick 2018), which was also a Kirkus Prize finalist and a Charlotte Huck 2018 honor book; the 2016 Pura Belpré Honor medal for her picture book, Mango, Abuela and Me; the 2014 Pura Belpré medal for her young adult novel, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass; and the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers Medal for her picture book Tia Isa Wants a Car.
Claudio Munoz (1947–), illustrator and 1997 winner of the French Prix du Livre de la Mer for The Little Captain (1995), which he both wrote and illustrated. A native of Chile and now a resident of the UK, Munoz studied architecture but left to pursue a career in illustration. He publishes regularly in The Economist and illustrates picture books such as Night Walk (UK2002, V&A/WHSmith award 2003), by partner Jill Newsome, and Tia Isa Wants a Car (US2011), by Meg Medina. Munoz is admired internationally for the versatility of his illustrations, which complement a range of widely disparate texts.
Traditionally, the Hispanic family is a close-knit group and the most important social unit. The term familia usually goes beyond the nuclear family. The Hispanic "family unit" includes not only parents and children but also extended family. Individuals within a family have a moral responsibility to aid other members of the family experiencing financial problems, unemployment, poor health conditions, and other life issues.
Family ties are very strong: when someone travels to another town or city to study or for a short visit (e.g., vacation, business, medical reasons), staying with relatives or even with friends of relatives is a common practice. Families often gather together to celebrate holidays, birthdays, baptisms, first communions, graduations, and weddings. Hispanic families instill in their children the importance of honor, good manners, and respect for authority and the elderly. Preserving the Spanish language within the family is a common practice in most Hispanic homes.
Summary of book
The book follows the character of Tía (Aunt) Isa, a young immigrant woman that works in a bakery, and is narrated through the viewpoint of her niece, to whom Tía Isa tells tales of her former home and her desire for their family members to join them. Tía Isa is saving her money towards purchasing a beautiful green car that she can use to drive herself and her niece to the beach, but this is difficult to do when she has to send much of her money home to help her family reach North America. Try as hard as she might, both goals seem like they will take an extremely long amount of time to come to fruition and Tía Isa's niece begins to secretly raise funds by taking on several jobs throughout the neighborhood.
Age and Reading level
Prevalent themes
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