By Ernesto Cisneros
New York: Quil Tree Books, 2026. Fiction. 257 pages.
Quetzalcóatl Castillo, Queso for short, is mourning the loss of his father. Even with his friends trying their best to cheer him up, Queso can’t help but feel the ache in his heart in the shape of his dad. He just wants to see his dad one more time. Queso whispers his wish to a bunny he saved during a night-time rainstorm while taking shelter in the tree house his dad built with his own father, the man Queso is named after but never got the chance to meet, only to wake up in 1985 and meets a twelve-year-old Pancho, the boy who will grow up to be his dad. Despite the potential dangers for his current/future time, Queso takes advantage of this strange time-travel to spend time with his father again and getting to know his grandfather, Quetzalcóatl “Queso” Senior. Queso wonders how much the future would change for his family if he helps Pancho with the one thing he’s not confident in: school.
Family and the love passed down through stories is a big theme in Queso Just in Time. This book is great for fans of the movies Back to the Future and Coco, being a perfect blend of the best parts of these films. While this book has some fantastical elements with time travel through a magic bunny, it portrays grief in a realistic way and shows that it’s okay to miss our loved ones after they pass on and that grief is a process that takes time. This book contains a cast of diverse characters, and their diverse struggles like dyslexia and ADHD, bullying, racism, and homophobia. The importance of libraries and librarians is also a big theme in this book and includes a cool history of how libraries have developed with the advances in technology.
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