PBS Kids introduces a 6-year-old heroine with ‘Alma’s Way’

NEW YORK » Alma has a dilemma: The 6-year-old New Yorker has tickets for a baseball game on Saturday with her grandfather, but she told her uncle she’d help him with a dance recital that day.

“I promised I’d help him. I made a commitment,” she says, taking a moment to think about her choices. “OK, I know what to do.” She breaks the news to her grandfather — a promise is a promise. “I completely understand,” he tells her. “It’s good to honor your commitments.”

Alma is the lively, thoughtful heroine of “Alma’s Way,” a new animated PBS Kids series set in the city’s melting pot Bronx borough and featuring a Puerto Rican and biracial extended family. It debuts this week.

The Fred Rogers Productions series has some starry creators. It was sparked and produced by Sonia Manzano, who played Maria while winning 15 Emmys as a writer on “Sesame Street.” And no less than “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda helped supply the theme song.

“The main overriding hope is that I want kids to understand that everybody has a brain and they can use their brains and they can think. It’s as simple as that,” says Manzano.

Designed for children ages 4-6, each 11-minute episode tries to help kids find their own answers to problems, express what they think and feel and recognize and respect the unique perspective of others.

In one episode, Alma tries to help make her mom’s mofongo dish better by quietly adding more and more ingredients. But it ultimately tastes lousy and she needs to come clean. In another, she stands up for her artistic vision on a mural, and in a third, she figures out how to cheer up her brother.