Cristina García

novelist

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    • Novels
      • Vanishing Maps
      • Here in Berlin
      • King of Cuba
      • The Lady Matador’s Hotel
      • A Handbook to Luck
      • Monkey Hunting
      • The Agüero Sisters
      • Dreaming in Cuban
    • Young Readers
      • I Wanna Be Your Shoebox
      • The Dog Who Loved the Moon
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      • ¡Cubanísimo!
      • Bordering Fires
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    • Dreaming in Cuban
    • The Lady Matador’s Hotel
    • King of Cuba
    • The Palacios Sisters
      • THE PALACIOS SISTERS (FULL PRODUCTION)
      • The Palacios Sisters (RADIO PRODUCTION)
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I Wanna Be Your Shoebox

Bookshop Amazon

Yumi Ruiz-Hirsch has grandparents from Japan, Cuba, and Brooklyn, but that is not the most mixed-up thing about her life. She’s starting eighth grade, her mom has a new boyfriend, her punk-rock dad is struggling to sell a song, and the boy she has a crush on dresses like a squid. In the same year, her orchestra’s been cut, her mom wants to move, and her grandfather is dying. How can anyone deal with all that? But that’s the thing, no one ever asks if you are ready for life to happen. It just does. And the choice is either to sit and watch or to join the dance.

Reviews

“García’s (Dreaming in Cuban) exceptional ability to channel a range of voices lights up her first children’s novel, about an eighth-grader in Southern California… A memorable work.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“In all, this is a fast, funny, and surprisingly plausible book with likable, slightly off-beat characters who interact and relate genuinely, often movingly.”
—School Library Journal

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