The best picture, middle grade and young adult books of 2021 deftly rise to that challenge, telling stories about identity, allyship and more.Donna Barba Higuera’s The Last Cuentista asks kids to consider the danger of adopting dogmatic beliefs without questioning authority figures.' 'Truly good children’s books engage and entertain while also helping young readers come to understand themselves and the complicated world they live in. This book is gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes-truly a beautiful cuento.” As Petra shares her tales and they guide her shipmates out of darkness, readers will find corners of their own hearts illuminated as well. 'The brilliance of Higuera’s narrative is that it shows rather than tells us the power of story. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children-among them Petra and her family-have been chosen to journey to a new planet.

There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.īut Petra's world is ending. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously she's not gonna let that slide. Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who's Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. And some not so much, like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons.

Some worthy, like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles.

She's also championed causes her whole young life. Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues.

Donna barba higuera the last cuentista