Review: Isabel in Bloom

By Mae Respicio

New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2024. Fiction. 363 pages.

Twelve-year-old Isabel is facing a lot of new challenges. Raised for the last five years by her beloved grandparents in the Philippines, Isabel is now moving to rejoin her mother in San Francisco. She is nervous about what this move will mean, especially assimilating into a new country and rebuilding her relationship with her mother. However, her Lolo has advised her to keep looking for the familiar in all of the the newness, and Isabel strives to do just that -- pulling on her deep connection to her Filipino heritage through her family's love of plants. As she joins her new school's culinary club, makes friends, and gains purpose rebuilding the school's community garden, Isabel finds she truly can bloom.

A heartfelt tale of the unique challenges inherent to immigration, as well as the pressures related to adolescence, Isabel in Bloom is a story that will resonate with anyone who has worked to reconcile cultural identities and finding their place in the world.

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