All You Knead Is Love

by Tanya Guerrero (Author)

All You Knead Is Love
Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

Tanya Guerrero's All You Knead Is Love is a contemporary middle grade coming-of-age novel about a twelve-year-old multiracial Filipino and Spanish girl who goes to live with her grandmother for the summer, gaining confidence through a newly discovered passion for baking, perfect for fans of Hello, Universe and Merci Suarez Changes Gears.

Sometimes you find home where you least expect it. Twelve-year-old Alba doesn't want to live with her estranged grandmother in Barcelona. She wants to stay with her mom, even if that means enduring her dad's cutting comments to them both. But in her new home, Alba forms a close relationship with her grandmother, gains a supportive father figure and new friends, and even discovers a passion and talent for baking. And through getting to know the city her mother used to call home, Alba starts to understand her mother better--and may just be able to make their family whole again.

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Booklist

A cast of unique characters, beautiful surroundings, and delicious food will have readers wishing they were part of Alba's world.

Kirkus Reviews

Layered with explorations of topics such as family dynamics, abuse, and identity, Alba's first-person narrative is one of growth, forgiveness, and acceptance...A delightful read.

Publishers Weekly

Twelve-year-old Alba Green has no interest in leaving New York City to spend the summer in Barcelona with Abuela Lola, whom she hasn't seen in most of a decade. But when her emotionally distant mother sends her off, Alba--who is a quarter Filipino and a quarter Spanish (and presumably half white), and who prefers her short, messy hair and vintage David Bowie tee to more femme-presenting clothes--has no choice but to comply. Initially wary of her grandmother's warmth, Alba slowly begins to trust, learning how to bake bread from her mother's dearest childhood friend, Toni, and finding out about her mother's life before Alba's "controlling, abusive jerk" father demanded that her mother cut ties with her past. Guerrero (How to Make Friends with the Sea) layers her contemporary novel of leavening a life with references to heritage, interweaving Catalan, English, Spanish, and Tagalog with deliciously described dishes and vivid imagery of Barcelona's neighborhoods to reinforce the theme of community's importance. Difficult topics, such as the effects of abuse and child neglect, are handled authentically through the eyes of a preteen girl without belittling the complicated emotional ramifications she experiences in everyday interactions. Back matter provides translations to non-English phrases. Ages 8-12. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, Wendy Schmalz Agency. (Mar.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

All You Knead is Love blended culture and cooking seamlessly into Alba's environment. Tanya Guerrero, does a beautiful job showcasing food's true purpose: connection, comfort, and creativity.— Nikki Bidun, winner of Top Chef Junior and Chopped Jr.

A heartfelt story about learning to love, trust, and thrive after trauma. This book transported me to Barcelona and made me laugh, cheer, tear up, and crave delicious bread! What a joy to get to know resilient, relatable Alba as she opens up to new experiences and becomes even more fully herself. — Laurie Morrison, author of Up For Air and Saint Ivy


Praise for How to Make Friends with the Sea:

Guerrero touches on many topics—anxiety, fostering, friendship, family, selective mutism, and more—seamlessly weaving them all together to create a strong, moving narrative. [...] A heartbreaking, heartwarming, powerful debut novel. — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

A story for anyone who's ever asked where—and what—home is. — Jack Cheng, author of See You in the Cosmos

How to Make Friends with the Sea is a heartwarming story about family, friendship, identity and finding courage within our own hearts. I know readers will have as much fun cheering for Pablo as I did. — Dan Gemeinhart, author of The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Touching and sweet, Tanya Guerrero's debut How to Make Friends with the Sea is a multi-layered story with heaps of heart. Readers will root for Pablo as he finds his courage, voice, and family on this journey to self-acceptance. — Elly Swartz, author of Finding Perfect and Give and Take

Atmospheric and moving, How to Make Friends with the Sea is an impressive debut. The friendship between Pablo and Chiqui completely captured my heart. — Jasmine Warga, author of Other Words for Home

Tanya Guerrero
Tanya Guerrero is the author of Adrift, All You Knead is Love, and How to Make Friends with the Sea. Filipino and Spanish by birth, she has been fortunate enough to call three countries home: the Philippines, Spain, and the United States. Currently, she lives in a shipping container home in the suburbs of Manila with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of rescued cats and dogs. In her free time, she grows her own food, bakes bread, and reads.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781250820464
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Publication date
September 20, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV013000 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | General
JUV050000 - Juvenile Fiction | Cooking & Food
JUV068000 - Juvenile Fiction | Travel
Library of Congress categories
Grandmothers
Mothers and daughters
Baking
Spain
Barcelona (Spain)
Abused women
Bread

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