Captivating and heartfelt.
In 2024, a 17-year-old New Jersey girl travels to Cuba to honor her abuela’s deathbed wishes.
Third-generation Cuban American Evamar adored her mysterious, folklorist grandmother so much that she overcomes her fear of visiting Cuba, with all its suffering and instability. She travels with her brother, Cedro, to spread sunflower seeds nourished by their grandmother’s ashes in her homeland. Eighteen-year-old musician Río was raised in Florida, but at age 16, after being wrongly accused of drug smuggling, he was deported alone back to his birth country of Cuba. Initially forced to do his military service—hard labor just like that endured by his “enslaved / Taíno / and Yoruba / ancestors,” talented drummer Río now suffers extreme poverty under the oppressive dictatorship. He resists misleadingly lucrative Russian army recruitment offers that involve “spreading death all over Ukraine.” When Cedro hires him and his cousin as guides, Río and Evamar meet. Written in beautifully emotive verse, the story alternates between the pair’s perspectives as they fall passionately in love, despite the looming challenges of a long-distance romance complicated by international politics. Río is by Evamar’s side as she fulfills her abuela’s final wishes, including reading her diaries and embracing her Taíno heritage and the Taíno language, awakening “the words / that have waited so patiently for so long.” Readers will root for the young couple and, after a deeply buried secret is revealed, they’ll hope for a sequel to explore its possibilities.
Captivating and heartfelt. (author’s note, references) (Verse fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781665988070
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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