Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista
I consider it a sort of moral victory that I checked this out of the library five days before it won the Newbery. ;) I don’t even remember what review or mention prompted that, but talk about serendipity! And I think this might be my favorite Newbery winner since When You Reach Me (which is one of my top five favorite books of ALL TIME, so high praise here). Anyway, it’s set in the 2060s, and focuses on a twelve year old girl whose family has been selected to go on a generation ship to a new planet, because Earth is about to be destroyed by a comet. And she’s expected to be a scientist like her parents, but she wants to be a storyteller like her grandmother! Of course, that turns out not to be the biggest issue, as all their plans quickly fall apart. So this is at once a kind of sci-fi thriller AND a story about the power of stories and culture and family. A hard combo to pull off and the author does it with aplomb. Super good. A.
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