(2) YA Six months ago, strangers took twelve-year-old Mimi’s papi and deported him. Since then, she’s had to take over her father’s electronics repair business to help her mother pay for a lawyer. Mimi has been so busy working she has not had time to hang out with her friends or focus on her schoolwork, but when her friends encourage her to enter a robotics contest with a $50,000 cash prize, Mimi cannot say no. Further complicating things: a robot crash-lands in the repair shop. Along with helping her father get back home, Mimi now must help the robot find its family while avoiding an overzealous government agent who is looking for the robots and will do anything to find them. Rodriguez and Ortega have created a fast-paced adventure that skillfully weaves in themes of friendship, family, community, and activism. This is an engaging and accessible addition to middle-grade and middle-school science fiction.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Rose Bousamra. In a graphic novel that takes on antiblackness and colorism, every Sunday Marlene must sit for hours at the beauty salon while her naturally abundant tight ringlets are styled into straight unfrizzy layers. Gorgeously emotive sunset- and teal-hued panels illustrate the passage of the seasons as Marlene unwillingly follows her mother into the salon yet again. Over time, Marlene begins to wonder if Mom is right, "that I can't be my best if my hair isn't straight." Marlene navigates the white standards of beauty entrenched in her Dominican family and which can permeate Latine communities, internalizing racist ideologies expressed in family comments: "You're lucky your baby's eyes are light." "Cara fina!" "Straighten your hair so you look more presentable." When school bullies target Marlene because of her hair, she takes a stand, which results in afterschool detention but also in a timely visit with Tía Ruby, who shows Marlene how to care for her curls as an act of radical love for Blackness and herself. Ortega's narrative shows the complex arc of Marlene's emotional growth--from exuberance to sadness, self-reflection to empowerment--captured with aplomb in Bousamra's expressive illustrations.

Reviewer: Lettycia Terrones | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Lucely Luna has big problems: her father's St. Augustine, Florida, ghost-tour business is struggling; the bank is threatening to foreclose on their mortgage; and a sinister supernatural force is coming to take its revenge on the good ghosts in town--many of whom are Lucely's beloved relatives. Fortunately, Lucely also has a devoted best friend, and together she and Syd set out to vanquish the invaders before Halloween night, when an "army of evil spirits" plans to wreak destruction on the city. The action is nonstop, the demons are truly creepy, and Lucely is a sympathetic and brave heroine. Dominican American Lucely's conversations with her ghost relatives incorporate Spanish naturally and seamlessly.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020