STREAM

Over a summer in Mexico between middle and high school, two California teens are forced to disconnect their devices and plug into the real world.

Elio, who’s been “trying to hide / behind gaming,” and Celi, whose social media addiction is damaging her mental health and physical safety (she’s “gone viral for twerking”), can’t imagine life without screens. When Mima and Papi tell Celi she’s leaving Oakland for rural Atoyac, she feels her world crash “against itself / like a lost bird into a wall.” Moms and Pops tell Mexican American Elio that he’ll be working to restore a damaged habitat in Atoyac, along with his friend Paco. Celi, who’s Mexican American and Puerto Rican, goes to live with her tías, learning to practice traditional medicine. When the two young teens’ paths finally cross, what seemed like a punishment transforms into an opportunity for romance, healing, and cultural exploration. Slowly learning to care for themselves and others, they unearth their true selves and reconnect to homeland, community, and nature. This stand-alone work follows characters readers met in The Moon Within (2019) and Ultraviolet (2024). Their distinct, realistic voices harmonize to form a powerful contemporary coming-of-age story of navigating digital detox, puberty, emotional growth, and gender and adulthood. Their relatable experiences are rendered in bright poems that shimmer with interwoven Spanish.

A lovely, lilting bildungsroman duet in verse.