Mari and the Curse of El Cocodrilo

Mari and the Curse of El Cocodrilo

Author: Adrianna Cuevas

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2023-10-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780063285491

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From Pura Belpré Honor-winning author Adrianna Cuevas comes Mari and the Curse of El Cocodrilo, a new middle grade novel about a young Cuban American girl who must fight to break a curse of bad luck set upon her by El Cocodrilo when she rejects her family's traditions. If Mari Feijoo could, she would turn her family's Peak Cubanity down a notch, just enough so that her snooping neighbor and classmate Mykenzye wouldn't have anything to tease her about. That's why this year, there's no way that Mari's joining in on one of the big-gest Feijoo family traditions--burning the New Year's Eve effigy her abuela makes. Only Mari never suspects that failing to toss her effigy in the fire would bring something much worse than sneering words at school: a curse of bad luck from El Cocodrilo. At first, it's just possessed violins and grade sabotaging pencils, but once El Cocodrilo learns that he becomes more powerful with each new misery, her luck goes from bad to nightmarish as the curse spreads to her friend Keisha. Instead of focusing on Mari's mariachi band tryout and Keisha's fencing tournament, the pair, along with their friend Juan Carlos, are racing against the clock to break the curse. But when Mari discovers her family's gift to call upon their ancestors, she and her friends will have to find a way to work with the unexpected help that arrives from the far corners of Mari's family tree. Only will it be enough to defeat El Cocodrilo before he makes their last year of elementary school the worst ever and tears their friendship apart?


The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

Author: Adrianna Cuevas

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Published: 2020-07-21

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 0374313628

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2021 Pura Belpré Honor Book NYPL Best Book of 2020 2020 Evanston Public Library Great Books for Kids In this magical middle-grade debut novel from Adrianna Cuevas, The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, a Cuban American boy must use his secret ability to communicate with animals to save the inhabitants of his town when they are threatened by a tule vieja, a witch that transforms into animals. All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad. When he and his mother move to a new town to live with his grandmother after his dad’s latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want to anyone find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals. But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor's grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen. As Nestor investigates the source of the disappearances, he learns that they are being seized by a tule vieja—a witch who can absorb an animal’s powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner... Now it’s up to Nestor’s extraordinary ability and his new friends to catch the tule vieja—and save a place he might just call home.


On the Block

On the Block

Author: Ellen Oh

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers

Published: 2024-10-22

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0593648447

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From We Need Diverse Books, the organization behind Flying Lessons & Other Stories, comes an inspiring middle-grade anthology that follows the loosely interconnected lives of multigenerational immigrant families, the residents at the Entrada apartment building. Edited by Ellen Oh, a founding member of WNDB. "The beauty of their shared home does not come from any single person, but instead from the sum of their experiences" -Meg Medina, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature 12 Families. 12 Cultures. 1 Building. Welcome to the Entrada, home to these everyday Americans, including the new kid on the block, who is both homesick and curious a Popsicle-bridge builder, a ghost hunter, and a lion dancer their families, friends, and neighbors from all around the world! Published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, this anthology features award-winning authors Tracey Baptiste, David Bowles, Adrianna Cuevas, Sayantani DasGupta, Debbi Michiko Florence, Adam Gidwitz, Erin Entrada Kelly, Minh Lê, Ellen Oh, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Andrea Wang, and Jasmine Warga. These inspiring stories celebrate family, friendship, culture, and American immigrant life today.


Creep It Under Wraps (Monster High School Spirits #2)

Creep It Under Wraps (Monster High School Spirits #2)

Author: Adrianna Cuevas

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2024-10-29

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13:

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The ghouls are back in Creep It Under Wraps, the second spooktacular installment in the Monster High School Spirits series, featuring original middle-grade stories set in the world of Mattel’s hit Nickelodeon show and written by author Adrianna Cuevas There isn’t a style or pop culture trend in the monster world that Cleo De Nile isn’t on top of. But on a visit to the human world, Cleo discovers a tradition that completely escaped her: Monster Con, where humans gather to dress up as their favorite monsters. Convinced it’s what Monster High has been missing—and determined to prove to her family that she can be a leader—Cleo decides to put on the school’s first ever Human Con. She even finds the perfect accessory for the winner of Best Dressed: a dazzling crown from the catacombs. But when Cleo tries the crown on, strange things start to happen. As the Con draws nearer, Cleo’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre. Thank the gods for goulfriends! Clawdeen, Draculaura, Frankie, and Cleo band together to solve the mystery of the crown’s origins so they can break the hold it has on Cleo . . . before she becomes a shadow of her mummy-rific self!


Cuba in My Pocket

Cuba in My Pocket

Author: Adrianna Cuevas

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Published: 2021-09-21

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 0374314683

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By the author of 2021 Pura Belpré Honor Book The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, a sweeping, emotional middle grade historical novel about a twelve-year-old boy who leaves his family in Cuba to immigrate to the U.S. by himself, based on the author's family history. “I don’t remember. Tell me everything, Pepito. Tell me about Cuba.” When the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 solidifies Castro’s power in Cuba, twelve-year-old Cumba’s family makes the difficult decision to send him to Florida alone. Faced with the prospect of living in another country by himself, Cumba tries to remember the sound of his father’s clarinet, the smell of his mother’s lavender perfume. Life in the United States presents a whole new set of challenges. Lost in a sea of English speakers, Cumba has to navigate a new city, a new school, and new freedom all on his own. With each day, Cumba feels more confident in his new surroundings, but he continues to wonder: Will his family ever be whole again? Or will they remain just out of reach, ninety miles across the sea? A Kirkus Best Children's Book of the Year "...Cuevas’ latest is a triumph of the heart...A compassionate, emotionally astute portrait of a young Cuban in exile." —Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW "Cuevas’ intense and immersive account of a Cuban boy’s experience after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion brings a specific point in history alive." —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW "Cuevas packs this sophomore novel with palpable emotions and themes of friendship, love, longing, and trauma, attentively conveying tumultuous historical events from the lens of one young refugee." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW


Creepy Cat Vol. 2

Creepy Cat Vol. 2

Author: Cotton Valent

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1648279260

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A MOST PECULIAR PET Now that she's all moved in to the mysterious mansion, Flora discovers Creepy Cat's incredible secret! And what will become of Flora's dreams and loves? Nothing good, probably! Mayhem abounds in the second volume of this scary-cute Gothic comedy!


The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto

The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto

Author: Adrianna Cuevas

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Published: 2023-04-04

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 0374390428

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A new middle grade contemporary fantasy from Adrianna Cuevas—author of the Pura Belpré Honor Book The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez—about a Cuban American boy who's sent to work on a ranch as punishment for a school prank gone wrong, where's he's confronted with a mystery as inexplicable as it is familiar and discovers that uncovering secrets will lead to learning hard truths about himself, told with Adrianna's signature self-deprecating humor. Rafa would rather live in the world of The Forgotten Age, his favorite fantasy role-playing game, than face his father’s increasing restrictions and his mother’s fading presence. But when Rafa and his friends decide to take the game out into the real world and steal their school cafeteria's slushie machine, his dad concocts a punishment Rafa never could’ve imagined—a month working on a ranch in New Mexico, far away from his friends, their game, and his mom’s quesitos in Miami. Life at Rancho Espanto isn’t as bad as Rafa initially expected, mostly due to Jennie, a new friend with similarly strong opinions about Cuban and Korean snacks, and Marcus, the veteran barn manager who's not as gruff as he appears. But when Rafa's work at the ranch is inexplicably sabotaged by a man (or a ghost) who may not be what he seems, Rafa and Jennie explore what's behind the strange events at Rancho Espanto—and discover that the greatest mystery may have been with Rafa all along.


Congo Tales

Congo Tales

Author: S.R. Kovo N'Sonde

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9783791368665

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"The Congo Basin in Central Africa harbors approximately one quarter of the world's rainforests. Second in size only to that of the Amazon, the heart of this rainforest is populated by communities whose lives are vastly different from much of the rest of the world. This stunning photo series is part of the Tales of Us project, which sets out to demonstrate that the powerful but fragile ecosystems and the mythologies of the peoples who call them home are inextricably linked. In this book, local Congolese living in the Mbomo District staged and enacted the oral history of the Congo for fine art photographer Pieter Henket under the canopy of the ancient rainforest from which these stories sprang." --Page 4 of cover.


Lucky Broken Girl

Lucky Broken Girl

Author: Ruth Behar

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-04-11

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0399546464

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Winner of the 2018 Pura Belpre Award! “A book for anyone mending from childhood wounds.”—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street In this unforgettable multicultural coming-of-age narrative—based on the author’s childhood in the 1960s—a young Cuban-Jewish immigrant girl is adjusting to her new life in New York City when her American dream is suddenly derailed. Ruthie’s plight will intrigue readers, and her powerful story of strength and resilience, full of color, light, and poignancy, will stay with them for a long time. Ruthie Mizrahi and her family recently emigrated from Castro’s Cuba to New York City. Just when she’s finally beginning to gain confidence in her mastery of English—and enjoying her reign as her neighborhood’s hopscotch queen—a horrific car accident leaves her in a body cast and confined her to her bed for a long recovery. As Ruthie’s world shrinks because of her inability to move, her powers of observation and her heart grow larger and she comes to understand how fragile life is, how vulnerable we all are as human beings, and how friends, neighbors, and the power of the arts can sweeten even the worst of times.