By Donna Barba Higuera
Montclair, NJ: Levine Querido, 2023. Fiction. 404 pages.
In the distant future, 13-year-old Leandro Rivera and his 9-year-old sister Gabi live on the outskirts of the walled city of Pocatel. Forced into hard labor and petty theft to survive, Leandro and Gabi are Cascabeles descendants of farmers from the San Joaquin Valley from before most of the world was destroyed. Cascabeles are subjected to the oppressive Pocatel Regime and live life in fear of severe punishment for even very minor offenses. The siblings are working on a plan to escape Pocatel and see if the old stories of La Cuna, a paradise city, are real. Their plan is derailed when Gabi is caught stealing, and Leandro is sent to Center of Banishment after taking her place. Leandro is offered a surprising reprieve -- have his consciousness transferred to a piece of old world tech, an animal drone called an alebrije. As an alebrije he can leave the confines of Pocatel, but he is tasked with finding a missing person and returning them to Pocatel. Leandro accepts his quest and in the process discovers the lies of the Pocatelan leaders.
This science fiction novel succeeds by connecting the story to folkloric traditions and grounding the story in parallels to our world. An epilogue reveals a connection between this book and Donna Barba Higuera's Newbery winning novel The Last Cuentista, a detail that will excite fans. Well-told and engaging, this is good for sci-fi fans.
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