reformadeflorida Book Reviews

“These vengeful wishes” Vanessa Valdes

These vengeful wishes

Zando Young Readers (Zando). To be published February 4, 2025.

Reviewed by Alma Ramos-McDermott

Category: High School (Young Adult)

Rating: 5 stars

Senior year was supposed to be the beginning of Ceci’s plan to get away from her mother’s constant failed marriages in pursuit of money. All she’d ever wanted was her love and attention, but her mother was more interested in money and men. After her husband was arrested, they were penniless and forced to return to the small town where her mom had grown up. There they would live in an ancient mansion that once belonged to the Sevilla family, the same family who town lore said La Segua, a wronged witch who could grant wishes, had cursed so no one ever lived long.

Due to her mom’s coldness towards her Ceci spent her life closed off to emotions. However Jaime, a cute boy she met soon after her arrival, seemed to bring out the best in her. Soon Ceci started to hear voices and began sleepwalking to the dark, haunted woods alongside the property but didn’t know what was happening. Jaime believed in her and, together, they uncovered a secret, hidden place in the woods where they met La Segua. Knowing wishes could change her life for the better Ceci began to ask La Segua for things, but darkness and destruction followed as her wishes began to come true.

It didn’t take long for the same darkness to stalk Ceci’s every move and for a voice from beyond the grave to call to her. With La Segua filling her mind with ancient memories and experiences, and events coming to their unnatural conclusions, it will take true love to save Ceci from the forces of evil conspiring against her.

I loved this book and was hooked from its first pages. I know my teen readers will be too.

Highly recommended for ages 16 and older.

Note: This review was originally posted in You Decide: Should I read it or not?

Reproduced here as a courtesy to Alma Ramos-McDermott.

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“Mamá’s magnificent dancing plantitas” Jesús Trejo; illustrated by Eliza Kinkz

Little Jesús #2.

Minerva (Astra Books for Young Readers). 2024

Reviewed by Alma Ramos-McDermott

Category: Elementary school

Rating: 5 stars

Full-page, colorful, childlike illustrations fill every page as little Jesús recounts his happiness at being appointed caretaker of his mother’s beloved collection of plants. From the spider plant’s “bajillion legs” to the “baseball-mitt chair” of her peace lilies, all hold special places in his imagination.

Unfortunately, little Jesús’ happiness is short lived when he finds his mother’s favorite plant looking ill, throws it a dance party, and accidentally breaks its pot. Despite his fears, Jesús tells his mother and learns that breaking the plantita is a good thing.

This sequel to “Papá’s magical water-jug clock,” which won Trejo the 2024 Pura Belpré Author Honor Award and awarded Kinkz an Illustrator Honor, is funny and delightful. Kinkz’s illustrations light up the pages, bringing Little Jesús’ adventures to life. Trejo’s comedic style is interwoven in his memories, while illustrations of seed packets with titles like “Goldfish muerto seeds,” (showing a dead goldfish), “Magical bean seeds” (shown farting), and “Seed seeds” (with one asking “what was the point?) are sure to bring laughs to his young readers.

Recommended for ages 5-10.

Note: This review was originally posted in You Decide: Should I read it or not?

Reproduced here as a courtesy to Alma Ramos-McDermott.

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“One last chance to live” Francisco X. Stork

Scholastic Press (Scholastic). 305 p. To be published September 3, 2024.

Reviewed by Alma Ramos-McDermott

Category: High school

Rating: 5 stars

Seventeen-year-old Nico has been in love with his neighbor Rosario since they were little. Though both loved to write and wanted to be famous, Rosario was obsessed. She needed writing to be her ticket away from their neighborhood. Since her future was all planned out Nico couldn’t understand why Rosario was later found dead from an overdose, so became preoccupied with finding out why she committed suicide.

As he struggled to figure out a strange dream he had about his own death, Nico’s pain was interrupted by the news his mother was very ill and his little brother was joining a local gang. Though he’s not interested in anything not having to do with Rosario, Nico must climb out of the hole he’s dug for himself or allow his dream to come true.

Told through Nico’s memories and the present time, his story of unrequited love, heartache, suicide, and death is complicated and messy. Stork left a few unexplained issues, which gives his teen readers opportunities to discuss solutions amongst themselves or in a book club.

Note: This review was originally posted in You decide: Should I read it or not?

Reproduced here as a courtesy of Alma Ramos-McDermott.

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Book review: Jasmine is haunted

“Jasmine is haunted” Mark Oshiro. Starscape (Tom Doherty Associates/Tor Publishing Group.) To be published October 1, 2024.

Reviewed by Alma Ramos-McDermott

Category: Middle school

Rating: 5 stars

Twelve-year-old Jasmine has been haunted since she was eight, the year her father died. For four years, she and her mom moved from place to place as ghost noises became too much for the neighbors. In the beginning, her mom used to listen to her fears about the ghost but now her mom won’t talk about it. Jasmine kept her fears and feelings bottled up, never able to make friends, as they never seemed to settle down.

A month into 8th grade Jasmine starts another new school, where she meets Bea and Jorge in the school’s GSA club. She soon finds out Bea is a ghost hunter, and Jorge tags along trying to get over his fear of ghosts. Together, they offer to help her find out why a ghost has been haunting her and why. Jasmine is fearful of ridicule, but soon gains acceptance and finds herself with friends for the first time in years.

As the trio work together Jasmine finds herself dealing with more than one ghost as they’re noisily invading her home and school, breaking and throwing things. It isn’t until her mother relents and calls her aunt to step in to help them that Jasmine finally learns her family history and the reason ghosts are attracted to her. Jasmin is haunted, but the past holds the key to her present.

From its first pages, middle grade readers will be engrossed in Jasmine’s dilemma as its realistic characters engage, entertain, and educate.

Recommended for ages 12-15.

Note: This review was originally posted in You decide: Should I read it or not?

Reproduced here as a courtesy of Alma Ramos-McDermott.

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Book Review: When You Get to the Other Side

“When you get to the other side” Mariana Osorio Gumá; Translated by Cecilia Weddell. Cinco Puntos Press (Lee & Low). 300 p. 2022.

Reviewed by: Alma Ramos-McDermott

Category: Adults

Rating: 5 stars

Emilia and her older brother Goyo had been raised by their grandmother after their mother died. Mamita had been struck by lightning when she a little girl, allowing her to see and hear things not from this world. She became a powerful curandera, and Emilia had been training to follow in her footsteps.

After she died, Emilia and Goyo were alone for months since their father and uncles crossed the border years earlier. Their only hope of survival was to join a group heading for the border, where they hoped to reunite with their father in Colorado. However, after they made it across the border and into the desert, they were separated. Traitorous guides allowed the men to be captured by the Border Patrol while the women were taken by a trafficking ring. Emilia was going to be a special favorite of the leader because of her young age. Goyo managed to avoid capture but, despite thirst, cold, and hunger, he was determined to make it across the desert to find his little sister.

Emilia and Goyo’s trials capture readers as their stories alternate between memories of Mamita and horrors in the desert. Many Mexican women disappear on their way to the United States, and the author sheds light on their possible fates. Crimes committed by Mexican cartels against more than 100,000 missing people continue today.

Note: This review was originally posted in You Decide: Should I read it or not?

Reproduced here as a courtesy of Alma Ramos-McDermott

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Book Review: A Seed in the Sun

A Seed in the Sun, by Aida Salazar. Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House). 255 p. 2022.(Includes Author’s note and Resources). 

Reviewed by: Alma Ramos-McDermott

Category: Children (Recommended for 10-14 years old)

Rating: 5 stars

Lula and her farmworker family travel from labor camp to labor camp performing back-breaking work under a hot California sun. Their work lives consist of little pay, no breaks, and squalid bedbug-filled hovels. In 1965 the family arrived in Delano to pick grapes. Lula was excited to start seventh grade, but Papá forced her to work. Though they had unknowingly walked into a strike organized by Filipino workers for better pay and working conditions, Papá refused to join. Day after day they crossed the picket lines until Mamá became very ill from pesticides. Papá couldn’t afford money for her care so, when he discovered union members could get free medical help, they joined the strike.

Lula was fascinated by the leadership qualities of co-union leader Dolores Huerta, while Papá would only listen to César Chávez because he believed men’s voices were more important than women’s. Through their struggles to survive the strong-armed tactics of the rich growers, which included arrests by crooked police and evictions, Lula worked to keep her dream alive. She hoped to make Papá proud and show him she was important.

In this story seeds are compared to farmworkers because seeds are strong, hold the memory of those who came before, become something new, and give new life. Though held down for decades by growers and crushed into the soil, farmworkers are seeds fighting to grow and survive. Having worked as a librarian with migrant farmworker families for years, I find it sad the battle for their rights continues.

Note: This review was originally posted in You Decide: Should I read it or not?

Reproduced here as a courtesy of Alma Ramos-McDermott.

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Book Review: Singing with Elephants

Singing with Elephants by Margarita Engle, Penguin Random House (Viking Books), 2022.

Reviewed by: Alma Ramos McDermott

Category: Children (Recommended for 10-14 years old)

Rating: 5 stars

Oriol misses her grandmother and Cuba. She, her parents and older sister moved to California to get special treatment for her grandmother’s diabetes, but it didn’t work. Due to trouble mastering English, she’s bullied at school and has learned to keep herself closed to others. She can be herself with the animals she helps her veterinarian father to care for, as she remembers Cuba and time spent with her beloved grandmother.

On one of her daily walks she meets a friendly woman named Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who helps her learn how to turn thoughts into poetry. Oriol is thrilled when she meets a friendly elephant who gives birth to twins, as spending time with them, writing poetry and singing with their elephant voices helps her feel better. Unfortunately their rich owner has other plans for the family. He believes elephants exist for his pleasure, so decides to take one of the twins to train for his own use. Without nourishment and love from its mother, Oriol knows the baby elephant will die. Can an eleven-year-old girl use her newly found voice to convince others they need to help her save its life?

Oriol’s words and thoughts flow through Margarita Engle’s poetic style of writing. As she learns to shape her poetic voice, and sing the song of elephants, young readers will also be excited to do so and learn how to sing too.

Includes “Author’s note,” “Gabriela Mistral’s poetry for children,” and “Further reading.”


Note: This review was originally posted in You Decide: Should I Read it or Not?.

Reproduced here as a courtesy of Alma Ramos McDermott.