“The moonlit vine” Elizabeth Santiago

Rated 5 stars ***** Tu Books (Lee & Low Books). 2023. 360 p. (Includes “Author’s note,” “Anacaona and Caonabo ancestry,” “Key moments in Puerto Rican history,” “Inspiring Boriqueños,” and “References.”)

The native Arawak lived in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, before Columbus and his conquistadores arrived. There are several theories on how they became known as Taíno including that they shouted “tayno,” meaning “good people,” to an incoming Spanish ship. Over the next 25 years their population was severely decimated through disease, massacre, and slavery, reducing their numbers from millions to 32,000 by the year 1514. It had been thought the Taíno were extinct, but a 2018 National Geographic article explained they assimilated and aren’t extinct because their DNA is found in living people – including yours truly.

Knowing this background information made “The moonlit vine” especially interesting as I read about fourteen-year-old Taína’s quest to defend herself and her family from injustices in their neighborhood and schools. Taína comes from a long line of proud Taíno women, direct descendants of Anacaona, a powerful leader murdered by Spaniards soon after Columbus’ arrival on Haiti. Anacaona gave an amulet and zemi to her daughter for protection, with instructions for them to be passed on through time to women in her family who would remember the knowledge of their proud past as their future power.

Over the centuries these precious artifacts and memories of their heritage were passed on until Taína received them from her grandmother. Though fearful at first, she soon learned of the powerful strength of her ancestors in a life-or-death situation.

I absolutely LOVED this book! Taína’s story, as well as historical chapters of women who came after Anacaona, kept me riveted.

Highly recommended for ages 14 and older.

“Mani Semilla finds her Quetzal voice” Anna Lapera

Rated 2 stars ** ARC. Levine Querido (Chronicle Books). Published March 5, 2024. 325 p.

Chinese-Filipino-Guatemalan American seventh grader Mani is sick of her mother dressing her in on-sale, ugly, baggy clothes, and of her family talking about her changing body as if she wasn’t there. Mani spends a lot of time wishing she could tell everyone what she really feels, but everything she wants to say is stuck in her head. Her grandmother talks about the Quetzal birds of Guatemala and tells her she needs to get a Quetzal voice, but Mani’s desperation to become a woman and figure out how to speak her mind is overly consuming.

Life at school is also chaotic, as boys routinely sexually harass girls and film their exploits for social media. If someone is brave enough to complain, teachers and administration accuse them of inviting bad behavior. Girls get punished while boys walk away, free to continue their lewd actions. As a result Mani doesn’t dare tell anyone what happened to her. Incident after incident builds until, like a volcano, Mani finally explodes. When she does, there is no stopping her.

I understand the feminist storyline the writer wanted to share, along with the need for readers to understand middle school sexual harassment, but I thought too much time was spent describing what Mani couldn’t say. I was bored with these constant descriptions and kept putting the book down. I wasn’t in a hurry to finish until I got to the last 40 or so pages because Mani finally spoke. Now I was interested enough to read until the end. The book could have been at least 150 pages shorter, and would have held my attention better, if Mani had gotten her voice a lot earlier.

Though I didn’t care for it, I will leave it up to readers ages 13 and older to decide if you want to read it or not.

“The cursed moon” Angela Cervantes

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. Scholastic Press. 211 p. Published September 5, 2023.

Rafe and his younger sister Brianna live with their grandparents because their mother is in jail. One night his eccentric neighbor warns him against telling scary stories during a blood moon. Rafe loves writing and telling scary stories but disregards the warning and regales his friend with a story about a girl who convinces a boy to jump into a pond to get her notebook. The boy disappears, and she warns his friend that the Caretaker is coming to get him too.

Soon after telling his story Rafe starts to see ghosts and learns the Caretaker has always made an appearance during a blood moon when someone told a scary story. Each time he came, a child disappeared. Rafe is frightened because he has begun to receive warnings that the Caretaker is coming. He need to protect Brianna but will first have to figure out how to stop the Caretaker.

This book will hook young, reluctant male readers as they eagerly turn the pages to see if the Caretaker will come for Rafe. Be sure not to read this at night, and keep your lights on…

Recommended for ages 11-15.

“I am not alone” Francisco X. Stork

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. Scholastic Press (Scholastic). 306 p. (Includes “Author’s note” and “Mental health and Crisis resources.” Published July 18, 2023.

Alberto is 18 and has been living illegally in the United States for three years with his sister and her young son. He works at odd jobs, sending half of his earnings to his mother and sister in Mexico, while trying to earn his high school equivalency diploma. Alberto was upset when he started to hear a voice calling him names or telling him to do bad things. Hoping to keep the voice at a distance he called it Captain America, but the voice grew louder. When a woman was murdered at a job he was working, Alberto couldn’t remember what happened. The police wanted to arrest him, but Alberto went on the run – hoping to prove his innocence.

Grace had her life planned out. In a few months she would graduate, attend college with her boyfriend, and become a psychiatrist. When her parents divorced, she seemed to lose focus. School and her boyfriend paled in importance as she struggled to figure out her place in the world. When she met Alberto, he was cleaning the windows in her apartment and seemed nice. They shared time together making pottery which he’d learned how to do in Mexico, so Grace was surprised to hear he was accused of murder.

His illegal status, the voices he heard, and the murder accusation were red flags signaling her to stay far away, but Grace was certain she needed to help him. However, time is running out because Captain America has decided Alberto doesn’t belong in this world and Alberto is listening to him.

Stork realistically portrays Alberto’s mental state of mind, while Grace’s character depicts a bystander who sees this struggle and decides to either turn away or help. Stork emphasizes not losing sight of the person behind a mental illness.

I believe this should be a 2023 Pura Belpre Young Adult Author winning title. Here’s hoping the January 2024 announcements from the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards will prove me correct. I will be in attendance that day to root for “I am not alone” to win.

Highly recommended for ages 17 and older.

“Big chicas don’t cry” Annette Chavez Macias

Rated 5 stars ***** ebook. Montlake. 2022.

Mari, Gracie, Selena, and Erica are cousins and best friends. They and their huge Mexican American family always get together for holidays, card games, and the annual making of Christmas tamales. Everyone talks English, Spanish, Spanglish, as well as the languages of hugs and love. When they get together the cousins bounce ideas, hurts, experiences, and romantic escapades off each other while Welita, their great-grandmother, is the glue that holds everyone together. She wants them to be happy, and to remember the importance of family. They had promised to always be there for each other but, when Mari’s parents got divorced and she moved away, things changed. She stopped coming around and, as the years passed, never made time for them. Though everyone missed her, their anger made their hackles rise whenever her name was mentioned.

In a back-and-forth narrative each cousin talks about their lives, and the love they feel for Welita and their family. It will take a tragedy to make sense of their own lives, and for the girls to understand what Welita has been telling them.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down and stopped every now and then only to wipe my tears away. The love and support for family that pours off the pages are extremely realistic and will leave readers sighing at the end wanting to continue their stories. Will there be a part two? I don’t know, but I would love it!

Highly recommended for Adults.

“When you get to the other side” Mariana Osorio Gumá; Translated by Cecilia Weddell

Rated 5 stars ***** Cinco Puntos Press (Lee & Low). 300 p. 2022.

Twelve-year-old Emilia misses her grandmother, Mamá Lochi, who had raised her and her older brother Goyo after their mother died. Mamita had been struck by lightning when she was seven years old, allowing her to see and hear things not from this world. With training from a local witch doctor, she became a powerful curandera. Emilia had been training to follow in her footsteps.

After Mamita died Emilia and Goyo were alone for months, since their father and uncles had crossed the border years earlier. Their only hope of survival was to get to Colorado where they hoped to reunite with their father. However, after their guides got the men and women across the border and into the desert, they were forcibly separated. The men were allowed to be captured by the Border Patrol while the women were taken by a trafficking ring. Goyo managed to avoid capture but, despite the thirst, cold and hunger that threatened to overwhelm him, he was determined to find his sister.

Emilia and Goyo capture readers, as their stories alternate between memories of Mamita and the horrors of their trip across the border. Many Mexican women have disappeared in the desert on their journeys to the United States, and the author sheds some light on their possible fates. The crimes committed by Mexican cartels against more than 100,000 missing people continue today.

Recommended for Adults.

“The other side of the river” Alda P. Dobbs

Rated 5 stars ***** Sourcebooks Young Readers. Petra Luna #2. 351 p. (Includes Author’s note.) 2021.

When I last saw twelve-year-old Petra Luna she, her little sister, brother and grandmother had managed to make it across the desert from Mexico to the United States in 1913. There she and thousands of other Mexicans lived in a refugee camp for a short time. Petra was growing desperate knowing they would be deported back to the war in Mexico if she didn’t find a job so, when an opportunity arose for all of them to travel to San Antonio, she took it.

Once in San Antonio Petra found a job, and her dream of learning to read was reawakened until Abuelita reminded her they were poor, and reading wasn’t important. At first Petra disagreed but, as others continued to see her as beneath them, she lost hope in a better future. With her confidence and faith shattered Petra will have to be braver and stronger than she thinks she can be if she wants to stay in the United States and make something of herself.

I was so engrossed in Petra’s story that I finished this book in one sitting. Her story continues as similar scenarios are played out daily in the 21st century.

Highly recommended for ages 11-14.

“Vampires of El Norte” Isabel Cañas

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Berkley (Penguin Random House). To be published August 29, 2023.

It was 1837 as Nena recalled meeting eight-year-old Néstor when he showed up at her papá’s ranch after his father and the ranchero where they worked were murdered by Anglos who wanted the land. Though she was a rich ranchero’s daughter, and he a lowly vaquero, they were inseparable for five years. Now they were both thirteen-years-old. Anglos had come to her papá’s ranch seeking cattle and land, leaving her to worry about its future. To help her papá protect Los Ojuelos from the Anglos, and to allow Néstor to buy land he desperately wanted, they snuck out one night to look for silver supposedly buried by a long-ago Count. Those dreams ended when Nena was attacked by a strange beast and died.

Unable to live without her Néstor spent nine years roaming, working as a vaquero, and mourning his lost love. When Anglos began encroaching on their territory in 1846, rancheros joined the Mexican army. To keep his uncle from joining Néstor returned to Los Ojuelos where he found out Nena was alive, but her love had turned to hate because he had left her for nine years. As they headed into battle with Nena along as a curandera, Néstor did everything he could to protect her. However, as vampire-like beasts begin to attack vaqueros and soldiers, their lives and those of their fellow vaqueros and rancheros were at stake.

In alternating voices Nena and Néstor tell their stories. Néstor’s fierce love for Nena is unparalleled, while her wishy-washy ways towards him make her very annoying. Book titles are provided that give insight into curanderas, folklore and life in the period. I couldn’t put it down because I was immediately wrapped up in the story. You will find it just as engrossing.

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Las Madres” Esmeralda Santiago

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Borzoi Books (Alfred A. Knopf). To be published August 8, 2023.

Luz is 57 years old and is a shadow of the vibrant girl and star ballerina she used to be when she was fifteen and lived with her loving parents in Puerto Rico. After a car accident killed them and left her with a devastating brain injury, life forever changed. Over time her brain healed enough to allow Luz to regain many functions, but an inability to remember her past and regressing into daily coma-like fugues became her new norm.

Luz’s memories appear in flashes she quickly forgets. After the accident she was taken care of by her grandparents as well as Ada and Shirley, two women who worked for her grandfather. When both grandparents died, they cared for her as if she was their daughter. When she was 16 years old, they moved to New York where she later married and had a daughter. When Marysol was 5 years old her father was killed and Luz was shot, so Ada and Shirley took care of her just like they’d done for her mother.

“Las Madres” is a story of love and strength from 1975 to 2017. It’s a woman desperately trying to remember who she was. It’s a daughter trying to connect to a mother with attacks that render her almost comatose. It’s an unbreakable bond between Ada, Shirley, their daughter Graciela, and Marysol. It’s the story of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Their stories, and what it means to be Puerto Rican, will resonate with readers long after the last page is turned.

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Men of the 65th: The Borinqueneers of the Korean War” Talia Aikens-Nuñez

Rated 4 stars **** ARC. ebook. Zest Books (Lerner Publishing). Published May 2, 2023. (Includes a “Timeline,” “Glossary,” “Source notes,” “Selected Bibiography,” “Further Information” and an “Index.”)

In 1950 the 65th Infantry Regiment, a segregated unit made up of soldiers from across Puerto Rico, were sent to fight in Korea for several years. Aiken-Nuñez narrates the brave ways in which they conducted themselves in battle, their many medals of bravery, the prejudice they faced, and the admiration they gained from a grateful Nation. By the end of the war prejudice led to the court-martial of 91 of these soldiers for something caused by the failures of Army brass. As readers learn what bravery, pride and being a member of the 65th meant to these men, they can understand the pain and confusion they felt after being emasculated on the field of battle. The wrongs they endured weren’t fully righted until 2014 when President Barack Obama honored the Regiment, and the few remaining survivors, with the Congressional Gold Medal.

I was interested in reading this book because my uncle served in the Korean War, in a different regiment since he lived off Island, and had recounted some of the prejudice he faced for being a Puerto Rican Afro-Latino in a White man’s Army. Readers will find numerous explanations for technical Army terms, with photographs, maps and copious endnotes included to enhance their understanding.

Recommended for ages 16 and older.

I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.