Just Right by Torrey Maldonado and Teresa Martínez

July 21, 2025

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Happy Monday! I’m thrilled Torrey Maldonado returned to Watch. Connect. Read. to finish my sentences! We discussed Toby, Teresa Martínez’s art, picture books, and more. I wrote the words in purple, and Torrey wrote the words in black. Thank you, Torrey!

Just Right are pages from my life. Do you have an amazing uncle? Maybe you had one? Probably an uncle who isn’t blood related, but he was family? An uncle who was there for you? I was that uncle and helped raise my niece since her birth. (Side-note: she asked me to walk her down the aisle since I had walked with her her whole life, how Toby’s uncle does in Just Right).

I have so much respect for uncles who step up and stand in, which is what we see in Just Right. It shows how uncles can make the difference for us. It shows how a loving adult can change how a child feels about themselves and the world. Another theme of my book is gift-giving and realizing the message in The Color Purple that “You your best”—that you’re the gift and to the right people you and your gifts are more than enough. I’m nearing thirty years of teaching and teaching has given me a front-row seat to witnessing that it’s easier to build up a child than it is to repair broken adults, and my hope is Just Right will encourage adults to keep building up kids and to step up how we build kids. Another wish is Just Right reminds kids to be with those who build us up.

Teresa Martínez’s illustrations brings you into the worlds of Toby’s emotions, home, neighborhood, and does a brilliant job of contrasting people and places that make him feel not right as well as just right. She made me relive the lows of rejection from someone who matters as well as making me feel the elation of feeling I matter to the right people. I’m told by those who’ve read Just Right that its imagery and words make you care and feel things long after you finish it. I’m smiling now thinking of how Teresa Martinez captures warmth of spaces Toby navigates with bright colors and expressiveness.

Toby is all love and light. I’m lucky because in my family and in the building where I teach I see similar kids, wide-eyed and innocently quick to care. Little ones can be on fire when they want to share something; however, that flame can be easily snuffed out. So Just Right is my effort as an uncle, a dad, and a teacher to keep kids flames and lights lit. Plus Toby has an amazing mom who’s very much my mom and she’s a hero in this story too. I sense readers will love how she helps Toby love and light up our world.

Picture books are magic because they speak a universal language with images we all understand and feel. Picture books break down big feelings and ideas in ways that are easy to get. Picture books plant seeds in young readers that becomes the fruit of their behaviors as tweens, teens, and adults.