When Newbery Medalist Meg Medina was a kid, she had a babysitter — señora Mimí. "She was sort of heavyset and she had dyed red hair and she had a gold tooth in the back and she had freckles on her hands," remembers Medina. She was a wonderful babysitter but kind of a pain in the neck, as well — Medina says you could look at the things on her coffee table, but you definitely couldn’t touch them.
"She felt this was a very important skill," she says. "We used to stand at that table and she'd have us practice, like putting our hands behind our back, and you could lean forward and look at all the pretty things." Then, when Medina was five years old, her mother announced that their family — tías and abuelos — would be coming from Cuba, and Medina’s grandmother would become her babysitter.
Not without some glee, Medina fired señora Mimí immediately. "I marched myself right up to that apartment. I said, 'señora Mimí, lo siento .
I'm very sorry but, you know, you're out. My abuela is coming. I don't need you anymore,'" Medina laughs.
But the joke was on her — señora Mimí went exactly nowhere. She became friends with Medina’s grandmother, and they’d often drink coffee together. "She loved us," says Medina.
Now, Meg Medina is honoring señora Mimí — and caregivers everywhere — in her new children’s book, No More Señora Mimí , illustrated by Brittany Cicchese. "I knew from past research that Meg's stories are all based a bit on her past ex.