This is the real deal—a Newbery winner that actually deserves the medal. Donna Barba Higuera crafted something special: a sci-fi adventure that's genuinely thrilling while exploring what it means to hold onto your culture, your stories, and your humanity when powerful forces want to erase them all.

Yes, it's dark. Earth gets destroyed, memories get wiped, and there's a sinister authoritarian vibe throughout. But it's not gratuitously dark—it's the kind of darkness that gives the hope and resistance real weight. Reviews consistently note that while the setting is bleak, the story never feels hopeless.

What makes this stand out is how it centers Latino culture and storytelling traditions in a space-travel narrative. Petra isn't just saving 'humanity'—she's saving her abuelita's cuentos, her family's specific stories, her people's history. That specificity makes it universal.

For kids ready for dystopian fiction (think Hunger Games-adjacent but middle-grade), this is absolutely worth the read. It's engaging enough to keep them turning pages while giving them real substance to think about.