This bookish meme tells the blogosphere what we’re waiting patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) for! It’s hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine!
Elizabeth Acevedo has said that reading Lorraine Avila feels like an “UPPERCUT to the senses.” We couldn’t agree more. We have never encountered an author with prose of this sensitivity and fire.
Yolanda Alvarez is having a good year. She’s starting to feel at home Julia De Burgos High, her school in the Bronx. She has her best friend Victory, and maybe something with Jose, a senior boy she’s getting to know. She’s confident her initiation into her family’s bruja tradition will happen soon.
But then a white boy, the son of a politician, appears at Julia De Burgos High, and his vibes are off. And Yolanda’s initiation begins with a series of troubling visions of the violence this boy threatens. How can Yolanda protect her community, in a world that doesn’t listen? Only with the wisdom and love of her family, friends, and community – and the Brujas Diosas, her ancestors and guides.
The Making of Yolanda La Bruja is the book this country, struggling with the plague of gun violence, so desperately needs, but which few could write. Here Lorraine Avila brings a story born from the intersection of race, justice, education, and spirituality that will capture readers everywhere.
Published by: Levine Querido
Expected Publication: April 11, 2023
Why I’m Waiting: I had this scheduled for like a month when I found this and then Nashville happened. It felt insensitive to keep it and not change it to a different week. But the last paragraph made me keep it. This country needs help. And the way people keep sweeping it under the rug isn’t helping. So maybe putting it front and center and putting it in people’s face will help them to see that we need change. And this book sounds like it’s done in such a creative way. And it looks like she has a hearing device on the cover, so that’s an added level of representation. (I haven’t read any reviews that confirm this tho) This book is going to be hard to get through, but I can’t wait to try.
What about you? Will you read this? Have you heard of this? Let me know in the comments!
This one does sound like it will be a powerful read. What’s sad is we can’t even say the timing is eerily apt since Nashville is not the first time this has happened. It’s devastating. I hope you enjoy this book once you get to read it! Hopefully it can help to put some sort of change in this world.
Here’s my CWW
Have a GREAT day!
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