The Last Cuentista

It all works thanks to the author’s keen appreciation of storytelling’s role in shaping cultures, dreams, and lives. An overall slow burner, this tale packs a wallop. An exquisite tonic for storytellers far and wide, young and old. 

An aspiring young storyteller with retinitis pigmentosa discovers that she's the only one who remembers life on Earth after waking up 380 years in the future in this suspenseful speculative novel. In the year 2061, a solar flare has altered the course of Halley's Comet, putting Earth and its inhabitants right in its trajectory. Twelve-year-old Petra Peña, a resourceful Mexican American preteen who longs to follow in her cuentista grandmother's footsteps and tell stories for a living, successfully boards one of the last ships off-world--as do members of a dangerous, cultlike group called The Collective. When Petra awakens centuries later at the ship's destination, she quickly realizes that The Collective has wiped the memories--or lives--of her fellow passengers, and she must use her wits and Mexican folklore to protect the remaining humans and avoid the same fate. Through Petra's gut-wrenching, tenderly crafted narrative arc, author Higuera (Lupe Wong Won't Dance) explores how story can awaken empathy, hope, and even resistance in an audience. This is the work of a true cuentista: gripping, euphonious ("The wind carried it off far away into the stars"), and full of storytelling magic. Ages 10-14. Agent: Allison Remcheck, Stimola Literary Studio. (Aug.)

Gr 5 Up-The magic and power of stories and storytelling help a preteen in a terrifying future. In 2061, with Earth about to be destroyed, 12-year-old Petra Peña and her scientist parents and younger brother Javier are just barely aboard the ship that will take them to the planet Sagan when a group of zealots called the Collective, wanting absolute equality at the expense of any diversity, take over. Almost 400 years later, Petra is one of the last four "sleepers" revived, and the only one who somehow retains her memories of Earth. She uses the stories her family shared and a precious copy of Yuyi Morales's Dreamers to try to save the others in her cohort, her newly rediscovered brother, and what seems to be the last Collective child. Life on the ship, made even more claustrophobic by Petra's declining vision from retinitis pigmentosa, and filled with the translucent, drugged Collective, is particularly chilling. Mexican American Petra is a strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others. The ending leaves the door wide open for a sequel. VERDICT A keep-you-up-all-night, compulsively readable science fiction novel that offers much food for thought.

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