Before 2024, Mex­i­co had nev­er elect­ed a woman nor a per­son who iden­ti­fied as Jew­ish as pres­i­dent. In a new pic­ture-book biog­ra­phy, Clau­dia Said Sí, authors Deb­o­rah Bod­in Cohen and Ker­ry Olitzky and illus­tra­tor Car­los Vélez Aguil­era iden­ti­fy Pres­i­dent Clau­dia Shein­baum as an agent of change. Using both the tex­tu­al and visu­al motif of meta­mor­pho­sis, the authors and illus­tra­tor com­pare Sheinbaum’s trans­for­ma­tion, over the course of her careers, to that of a but­ter­fly emerg­ing from its chrysalis.

Although all four of Sheinbaum’s grand­par­ents were Jew­ish immi­grants to Mex­i­co, reli­gious iden­ti­ty has not fea­tured promi­nent­ly in her activism or pol­i­tics. How­ev­er, she has open­ly dis­cussed her Jew­ish roots. These facts are pre­sent­ed real­is­ti­cal­ly. An anec­dote about the young Clau­dia cel­e­brat­ing Hanukkah with her grand­par­ents is accom­pa­nied by a live­ly scene of an illu­mi­nat­ed menorá, smil­ing abue­los, and their hap­py grand­daugh­ter. This cor­re­sponds to Sheinbaum’s gen­er­al mem­o­ries of fes­ti­val obser­vances with her grand­par­ents, not in her own home; Sheinbaum’s par­ents were sec­u­lar intel­lec­tu­als and polit­i­cal activists who inspired her to fight for social justice.

The book’s end­pa­pers fea­ture a lush col­lage of over­lap­ping but­ter­flies on their annu­al autum­nal appear­ance dur­ing Sheinbaum’s child­hood: ​“Most of the but­ter­flies set­tled in the moun­tains, blan­ket­ing fir trees like cop­per silk.” The del­i­cate poet­ry of this sen­tence is an inter­est­ing choice for pre­sent­ing Sheinbaum’s ori­gins. She is mul­ti­tal­ent­ed, drawn to nature and bal­let. Soon, how­ev­er, the stages of her growth, like that of a but­ter­fly, become more evi­dent. Clau­dia demon­strates for free pub­lic edu­ca­tion and begins to pur­sue a career in the sci­ences and engi­neer­ing, earn­ing a doc­tor­ate. Focus­ing her work on envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions, she even­tu­al­ly becomes part of a team that shares the Nobel Peace Prize. The metaphor of a butterfly’s bio­log­i­cal devel­op­ment, along with its grace­ful beau­ty, traces its flight through­out Sheinbaum’s sto­ry, as her self-assur­ance and deter­mi­na­tion define her path.

Elect­ed may­or of Mex­i­co City, Shein­baum imple­ments poli­cies pro­mot­ing solar ener­gy and inno­v­a­tive forms of trans­porta­tion. A two-page spread shows cable cars sus­pend­ed above the crowd­ed com­mu­ni­ties below, with but­ter­flies crown­ing the mul­ti­col­ored dwellings. The book cul­mi­nates with Sheinbaum’s elec­tion to the pres­i­den­cy, proud­ly rais­ing her hand to a crowd of sup­port­ers. Giv­en her per­sis­tence, her vic­to­ry in the elec­tion seems as expect­ed as the trans­for­ma­tion of a but­ter­fly. Yet, as the authors empha­size, she is ​“the first woman, the first Jew­ish per­son, and the first sci­en­tist to lead the coun­try.” By con­clud­ing their biog­ra­phy at this point, Bod­in Cohen and Olitzky present Sheinbaum’s career as a work in progress. Young read­ers will be impressed by her accom­plish­ments, and per­haps won­der what her future will bring.

Clau­dia Said Sí! is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed and includes an after­word with fur­ther infor­ma­tion and a glossary.