Imagine being eight years old and walking into a classroom where almost everything feels unfamiliar. The language is different. The routines are different. Even lunch is different.

That is the world readers enter in Lourdes Fasani’s Luli books: Luli’s First Autumn, Luli’s First Thanksgiving, Luli’s Cafeteria Lunch, Luli’s Sad Farewell and Luli’s First Snowfall. Together, these stories follow a young Cuban immigrant as she leaves Marianao, arrives in the United States and begins learning how to belong without forgetting where she came from.

One of the clearest examples appears in Luli’s Cafeteria Lunch. Luli has never eaten in a school cafeteria before. Back in Marianao, she would go home for a long midday meal, so lining up with classmates and carrying a tray is already something new. Then she reaches the food.

The milk is ice cold.

For Luli, that is a shock. She is used to having her milk heated with coffee and sugar. Then she sees broccoli, a vegetable she does not recognize and thinks of it as a pile of little green trees.

It is a small scene, but it captures something important: fitting into a new culture often happens through everyday moments.

Luli’s mother does not force her to forget what she likes. Instead, she helps her adapt. She sends powdered cocoa to mix into the cold milk and garlic powder to sprinkle over the broccoli. Suddenly, the unfamiliar feels a little less strange. Luli begins enjoying lunch with her classmates and even wonders whether one day she might drink the milk and eat the broccoli without adding anything at all.

That pattern continues throughout the collection.

In Luli’s First Autumn, colorful leaves and Halloween traditions introduce her to a season unlike anything she experienced in Cuba. She is fascinated by pumpkins, jack-o’-lanterns, costumes and a school parade.

In Luli’s First Thanksgiving, she encounters another new tradition. Her family celebrates with neighbors, sharing a meal that combines American dishes such as turkey and pumpkin pie with Cuban foods including pork roast, congrí, yuca, plantains and flan.

And in Luli’s First Snowfall, even the weather becomes an adventure. Luli wakes up, looks outside and thinks the yard has been covered in sugar.

But the emotional foundation of the series begins in Luli’s Sad Farewell. Before all the new experiences, there is loss. Luli must leave Cuba, say goodbye to family and give up treasured belongings before eventually reaching Chicago and reuniting with her father.

That is what gives the collection its heart.

Lourdes Fasani does not present Luli’s new world as simply exciting or simply difficult. It is both. It is cold milk and warm memories. It is strange food and familiar flavors. It is missing home while learning to enjoy a new one.

For young readers, these stories can make immigration easier to understand because they show it through experiences children recognize: school, meals, holidays, family and the challenge of being new.

And for Luli, every unfamiliar moment becomes another small step toward belonging.

Read the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0FVGJBMBR/allbooks