Alebrijes

August 15, 2023
Thirteen-year-old Leandro Rivera and his 9-year-old sister, Gabi, brave the harsh reality of a segregated settlement in post-apocalyptic California. Spanish-speaking Cascabeles like Leandro are forced to work the fields to provide for elite English-speaking Pocatelans or risk exile and certain death in the desolate and dangerous monster-filled outside world. Descended from farmers who worked the land before the calamity that made everything barren, the orphaned siblings, who survive as pickpockets, face discrimination within the city's walls and are threatened with deadly punishment for even minor offenses. Leandro and Gabi hatch a plan to escape from their oppressors, live free in the wild, and return to the ways of their people. Their plans derail, however, when Leandro is banished for stealing after he covers for Gabi's impulsive theft of a strawberry. But Leandro's magical transformation leads to a breathtaking discovery that could transform the lives of everyone in Pocatel. In Leandro's hero's journey, alebrijes are brilliantly cast as animalistic machines from another era and saviors of the living. The story examines how people can build better societies from the ashes of unequal, oppressive, and corrupt ones. Softly rendered black-and-white illustrations evoke the terrors and wonders of a broken world through a child's eyes. Strong worldbuilding uses the familiar and the fantastic to prod readers to consider the story's parallels to real-world injustices and the ethics of power, storytelling, and greed. This heartfelt adventure signals hope for humanity, even in the aftermath of darkness. (map) (Dystopian. 10-14)

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Starred review from August 21, 2023
An orphaned pickpocket must inhabit the body of a hummingbird drone in Newbery Medalist Higuera’s deeply humane postapocalyptic novel set in the distant future. Since arriving in Pocatel, a walled city with a harsh climate and scant resources, 13-year-old Leandro Rivera and his nine-year-old sister Gabi endure a life of arduous physical labor and must frequently engage in petty theft to survive. As Cascabeles, the Latinx-coded descendants of workers from the San Joaquin Valley, Leandro and Gabi must at all times abide by the oppressive Pocatelan Regime’s laws—or else face banishment as well as the deadly wyrms that lurk outside the city. When Gabi is caught stealing a strawberry just before a planned escape, Leandro sacrifices himself in her place. Upon meeting his captors, though, he is offered a reprieve in the form of a task: occupy a piece of tech thought lost to time and find a missing person beyond the city’s borders. Steeped in folkloric ambience and employing delicate character work, this stellar speculative narrative explores themes of identity across circumstance, centering an adolescent without structural power working to protect family and community. Occasional b&w interiors from Álvarez enrich the narrative. Ages 10–14. Agent: Allison Remcheck, Stimola Literary.

Starred review from September 1, 2023

Gr 4-9-Subtle worldbuilding, flesh-and-bone protagonists, and magnetic writing make this sci-fi companion to Newbery Award-winning The Last Cuentista an instant classic. To survive, orphan brother and sister Leandro and Gabi scavenge potatoes for their harsh employers. They are Cascabeles, the descendants of the farmers who worked the lands of the San Joaquin Valley before a disaster wiped out most of the world 400 years ago. They live under the subjugation of the cruel Pocatelans, under threat of exile for any minor infraction, in tent communities and dire conditions, afraid of monsters and starvation. Completely on their own, the siblings have to pickpocket to stay alive. Leandro takes the fall for Gabi when she gets caught stealing, and he is banished. Instead of a death sentence, he is transformed into a hummingbird drone and joins other machines, called alebrijes, named after the mystical creatures sculpted by Oaxacan artists. In his new form, Leandro uncovers a dangerous plot. With measured pacing and layered character development, Higuera's latest is a masterly exploration of how corruption is an indelible part of every oppressive society. It's also a celebration; there will always be a beacon of hope in dark times, fueled by stories and community. There are still reminders of the previous world that serve to remind readers that this society is not too different from our own. The Cascabeles speak Spanish; the Pocatelans speak English. VERDICT This gorgeously written post-apocalyptic novel is a must for every library.-Shelley M. Diaz

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Starred review from August 1, 2023
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Upon a desolate Earth, an enclave of humans has established a society amid hostile surroundings, including a wyrmfield inhabited by subterranean monsters straight out of Tremors. A harsh caste system has landed orphaned 13-year-old Leandro and his little sister, Gabi, in the Pox (Pocatel's slum) with the other Cascabeles, who work the potato fields each day under the watchful eye of the Pocatelan guards. Longing for a better life, Leandro has planned an escape, but everything is ruined when he is arrested for stealing and sentenced to three years' exile. Curiously, it will only be his mind that is held captive--uploaded into a tiny piece of Old-World tech called a spark. The physician performing the procedure secretly offers Leandro a deal in which she will place his spark into a hummingbird drone if he will search for her missing daughter, who is also in drone form. He accepts, knowing he and Gabi can leave Pocatel should he succeed. The high-stakes adventure awaiting Hummingbird Leandro is enthralling and studded with surprises that spur the narrative onward. Beautiful, imaginative writing fills this dystopian sf novel. Though it exposes cruelty and corruption, it raises up storytelling, culture, and kindness as stronger yet, giving a satisfying nod to Higuera's Newbery Award-winning The Last Cuentista (2021) in the process. A wondrous addition to any collection.

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November 1, 2023
On Higuera's barren post-apocalyptic Earth, Pocatels rule over the Spanish-speaking Cascabels, refugees from the San Joaquin Valley, forcing them to live in squalid tent cities, endure long hours harvesting potatoes, and subsist on next to nothing. Thirteen-year-old Leandro and his younger sister, Gabi, impoverished and orphaned Cascabels, plan to escape the Pox, as their settlement is called, but when Gabi is caught stealing a strawberry from a fruit seller, their scheme is thwarted. Leandro takes the blame, and he's sent to the Center of Banishment for the theft. He's given a choice: banishment or have his consciousness transferred to an alebrije, an Old World animal drone. He chooses the alebrije: as a drone hummingbird, he's free to fly from the confines of Pocatel, but his choice comes with conditions. For one, he's tasked with finding the daughter of one of the ruling directors and returning her to Pocatel. On his quest, Leandro uncovers the lies of the government; finds La Cuna, a legendary verdant paradise of the Cascabels; and discovers what it means to be a hero. With its social and environmental commentary, this fast-paced and imaginative novel tackles issues of deception and control and leaves one with a sense of wonder that a single flap of a wing or a solitary voice can bring about unimaginable change. An epilogue gratifyingly ties this book to Higuera's Newbery Award-winning The Last Cuentista (rev. 9/21). Yesica Hurd

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