Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Life After the Golden Child

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

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Julia Reyes is 15 when this novel opens, and her older sister Olga has just died in an accident that Julia partially blames herself for. Olga seemed to be the perfect Mexican daughter; she wanted to stay home with family, was content with community college, helped their mother out. Julia, on the other hand, wants to leave home to go to college and become a writer, has a rocky relationship with her mother, and chafes against the restrictions her parents (especially her mother) place on […]

Tackling Grief and Mental Health Issues in YA Lit

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But how do we live with these secrets locked within us? National Book Award nominee I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is a powerful young adult novel that deals with the very real trauma of grief and depression. Fifteen-year-old Julia Reyes, our narrator, lives in Chicago with her parents and older sister Olga, who has just died in a tragic accident. Julia is struggling with feelings of grief, guilt and anger, and her already fragile relationship with her parents is at the breaking point. […]

To Aim High is to Make Waves to Split Seams

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So, like many CBR folks, I’m working on my backlog of reviews but I wanted to be sure to get a review in of this debut novel by Erika Sanchez, even though I finished it back in early November. My positive feelings about this novel were influenced by my experience hearing Sanchez talk at the Chicago Humanities festival in October.  She’s funny, irreverent, honest, and an encouraging role model to young writers of color.  I watched as one young Latina woman after another stood up […]



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