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