Homesickness can be hard for adults to explain and even harder for children to understand. It is not always just missing a place. Sometimes, it is missing the smell of familiar food, the sound of a loved one’s voice, the way school used to feel or traditions that once seemed completely ordinary.
Lourdes Fasani captures those feelings beautifully in Luli’s First Autumn, Luli’s First Thanksgiving, Luli’s Cafeteria Lunch, Luli’s Sad Farewell and Luli’s First Snowfall. Through eight-year-old Luli, readers see that leaving home can be painful, but it can also open the door to new experiences, friendships, traditions and memories.
The strongest sense of homesickness begins in Luli’s Sad Farewell. Luli leaves Marianao, Cuba, with her mother and younger brother, saying goodbye to family and everything familiar. At the airport, she is told she cannot take her favorite doll with her and her mother must leave family photographs behind. These are not abstract losses. They are the kinds of things a child understands deeply.
Still, Fasani does not leave Luli in sadness. The journey eventually brings her to Chicago, where she is reunited with her father after more than two years apart. That moment of reunion becomes an early sign that even after leaving one home behind, love can help create another.
In Luli’s Cafeteria Lunch, homesickness appears in an ordinary setting. Luli is surprised by cold milk and unfamiliar broccoli because school meals in Illinois are so different from what she knew in Cuba. Her mother helps bridge the gap by sending cocoa for the milk and garlic powder for the broccoli. The story shows that comfort can sometimes come from carrying a little piece of the familiar into something new.
That same balance appears in Luli’s First Autumn. Luli is amazed by colorful fall leaves and unfamiliar Halloween traditions. What begins as confusion turns into excitement as she learns about pumpkins, costumes and a school parade. Homesickness is not erased, but curiosity begins to make room beside it.
In Luli’s First Thanksgiving, discovery becomes even more meaningful. Luli’s family celebrates with American neighbors, combining turkey and pumpkin pie with Cuban dishes such as pork roast, congrí, yuca, plantains and flan. The meal becomes a reminder that embracing a new culture does not require giving up the old one.
Then Luli’s First Snowfall turns another unfamiliar experience into wonder. Luli looks outside and thinks the yard has been covered in sugar. Even during a snowy Illinois Christmas, memories of Cuban food and family traditions remain close to her heart.
What makes Lourdes Fasani’s books so warm is the way they let sadness and hope exist together.
Luli misses Cuba, but she also learns to love new things. She remembers one home while slowly building another. For young readers, that can be a powerful message: feeling homesick does not mean you cannot move forward.
Sometimes, discovery begins with missing what came before and finding the courage to welcome what comes next.
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