How do you speak up when it feels like no one is listening? One girl takes on seventh grade while facing mental health challenges, and must find her voice to advocate for the help and understanding she deserves.
Listen up: The end of elementary school?Worst time of my life.And the start of middle school?I just wasn't quite right.But this year?YO VOY A MI.
Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz's year. She's going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school . . .
Except is that what happens? Of course not. Because no matter how hard Iveliz tries, sometimes people say things that just make her so mad. And worse, Mimi keeps saying Iveliz's medicine is unnecessary--even though it helps Iveliz feel less sad. But how do you explain your feelings to others when you're not even sure what's going on yourself?
It's All or Nothing, Vale
Andrea Beatriz Arango
A poignant novel in verse where, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion. From the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.All these months of staring at the wall?All these months of feeling weak?It’s ending—I’m going back to fencing.And then it’ll belike nothing ever happened.No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?In this moving novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion and discovers that the sum of a person's achievements doesn’t amount to the whole of them.
Something Like Home
Andrea Beatriz Arango
A novel in verse in which a lost dog helps a lonely girl find a way home to her family . . . only for them to find family in each other along the way.
Titi Silvia leaves me by myself to unpack,
but it’s not like I brought a bunch of stuff.
How do you prepare for the unpreparable?
How do you fit your whole life in one bag?
And how am I supposed to trust social services
when they won’t trust me back?
Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same as being in her own space.
So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she’ll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help them get better and things will finally go back to the way they should be.
After all, how do you explain to others that you’re technically a foster kid, even though you live with your aunt? And most importantly . . . how do you explain that you’re not where you belong, and you just want to go home?