Review: How to Say Goodbye in Cuban

By Daniel Miyares

New York: Random House, 2025. Comic. 240 pgs.

In 1956, twelve-year-old Carlos likes his life in Ceiba Mocha, in the Cuban countryside. He spends lots of time with his family and his abuelo is his best friend. Carlos doesn't understand why his papi is always trying to win the lottery to move their family away from Abuelo and Abuela's farm. Almost unbelievably, one day Papi wins the lottery and Carlos' family moves to the city. Everyone keeps telling him this is a good thing, but he doesn't see how. But Carlos' life is due for even more big changes: Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrow the Cuban government and after men with guns seize his business, Papi disappears to set up a life for the family in America.

This fictionalized account of the author's father's experiences as a child in Cuba is a window into a world of political upheaval. The story has a good balance of following Carlos and his perspective on the changes in his daily life, while also including updates about the political unrest. The story feels very realistic to how many children experience world events, Carlos knows a little about what's happening, but adults won't give him the full picture. This is an emotional historical fiction comic that's receiving a lot of end of year buzz. Recommend this to tweens interested in the 20th-century or refugee stories.

Comments

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...

Review: Fowl Play

Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...

Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Search This Blog