The Last Cuentista
by Donna Barba Higuera
Book Cover Picture:
Category: Newbery Medal
Target Age Group: Ages 10+, Grades 4+
Format: eBook
Summary: Hally's Comet is going to hit Earth. In order to keep the human race alive, a select few scientist are selected to escape Earth and start a new colony on another planet. The journey will take about 400 years so they are put into stasis and monitored by people living on the space craft. However, the monitors have other plans and brainwashes the people in stasis to support their new sinister Collective to forget the past and just serve their new way of life. Petra is the only one who remembers Earth and carries our stories from the past.
Justification:The Last Cuentista is a Newbery Medal and Pura Belpre winner. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited making it accessible to more people.
Review: This review will examine the plot, the main character, the overall experience of reading the book and how reading it in a digital format impacted my reading.
The base plot is something we've heard before. The Earth will be destroyed and humans are fleeing to another planet to survive. However, the unique twist on this telling is the weaving in of Mexican folklore. The humans who did not get put to sleep for the journey changed so much in the 400 or so years it took to arrive at the new planet. The Collective as they call themselves, wanted to eradicate the wars and fighting and differences that made humans human and almost created a whole new breed of species that works in a hive mind. It was fascinating to see how taking a utopian concept too far could dehumanize us in a way.
The main character, Petra, was a storyteller. She learned all these fables from her grandmother, passed down from generations before her. As part of the oral storytelling tradition, things change slightly in the stories. As she is the only one who remembers Earth as it was, and the stories she brought with her, it is up to her to keep them alive. There were several stories that were told in the book and one of them I recognized. One of them she called Blancaflor which I remember as Petronella, one of my favorite childhood books. She changes the stories ever so slightly to explain the circumstances they are currently living in. She is a strong female character who stands up for humanity.
I absolutely loved this book. I could not put it down. The pacing was great, not too much unnecessary fluff thrown in. It was a great sci-fi dystopian novel that kept me wanting more. I had to double check to see if there was a second book!
I love that this book was available through Kindle Unlimited. It makes it much more accessible to readers on a budget. I read it on the Kindle App on my phone, so I had it with me at all times. It enabled me to read while getting my steps in and through the night after the husband was asleep. I couldn't put this book down! With it being digital on my phone, I didn't have to.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was sci-fi, dystopian and really well written. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Resources
Higuera, D. B., (2021). The last cuentista [eBook edition]. Levine Querido.
Williams, J., (1973). Pertronella (F. Henstra, Illus,). Parents Magazine Press.
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