Reviewed by Amanda MacGregor
Review Source: School Library Journal
Book Author: Anna Lapera
Uncovered family secrets and a growing feminist consciousness propel a seventh grader to cause good trouble and start a school-wide revolution. Twelve-year-old Manuela “Mani” Semilla, whose parents are Chinese-Filipino American and Guatemalan, feels stuck in the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. Mani is desperate to get her period and to get out from under her overprotective mother’s control. At school, quiet Mani and other girls are constantly harassed, assaulted, groped, bullied, recorded, abused, and humiliated. They’re also blamed by teachers and the administration for bringing it on themselves, being liars, and overreacting. Continue reading on School Library Journal.
Find more recommended titles on our Central America booklist.
Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice by Anna Lapera
Published by Chronicle Books on March 5, 2024
Genres: Central America
Pages: 336
Reading Level: Grades 6-8
ISBN: 9781646143924
Review Source: School Library Journal
Publisher's Synopsis: Life sucks when you're twelve. You're not a little kid, but you're also not an adult, and all the grown-ups in your life talk about your body the minute it starts getting a shape. And what sucks even more than being a Chinese-Filipino-American-Guatemalan who can't speak any ancestral language well? When almost every other girl in school has already gotten her period except for you and your two besties.
Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: To get her period, and to thwart her mom's plan of taking her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday. If her mom's always going on about how dangerous it is in Guatemala, and how much she sacrificed to come to this country, then why should Mani even want to visit?
But one day, up in the attic, she finds secret letters between her mom and her Tía Beatriz, who, according to family lore, died in a bus crash before Mani was born. But the letters reveal a different story. Why did her family really leave Guatemala? What will Mani learn about herself along the way? And how can the letters help her to stand up against the culture of harassment at her own school?
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