In the award-winning picture book My Heart Speaks Kriolu (Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025), a grandfather talks of bringing his granddaughter to their ancestral home, Cabo Verde. But each time he urges the young girl to speak Kriolu, the Portuguese creole native to the West African country, the girl stumbles over her own words. She wonders if she can’t speak the language, how can her grandfather’s home ever truly be hers, too? But on Saturday afternoon walks with her Papa, the girl connects with the smells, sounds, and feel of her Cabo Verdean heritage and learns the true meaning of home. My Heart Speaks Kriolu was written by 2004 Boston College graduate Stefanie Foster Brown, a fourth-generation Cabo Verdean American. The book is inspired by the author’s memories of taking neighborhood walks with her own grandfather, one of the last in her family to speak Kriolu.