From the author of All You Knead Is Love and How to Make Friends with the Sea, an upper middle grade contemporary story of survival and grief about two biracial Filipino cousins whose resilience is tested when one of them is lost at sea.
Cousins Coral and Isa are so close that they’re practically siblings; their mothers are sisters, and the two girls grew up on the same small island. When Coral and her parents leave on a months-long sea voyage amid the islands of Indonesia, Isa is devastated that they’ll be kept apart, and the two vow to write to each other no matter what.
Then the unthinkable happens and Coral’s boat capsizes at sea, where her parents vanish. Washed up on a deserted island, alone and wracked by grief, she must find the strength within to survive and find her way back home. Meanwhile, Isa is still on Pebble Island, the only one holding out hope that her beloved cousin is still alive.
Told in alternating points of view, this is a powerful story of loss and hope, love and family―and the unexpected resilience of the human spirit.
Twelve-year-old Alba doesn't want to live with her estranged grandmother in Barcelona.
But her mother needs her to be far, far away from their home in New York City. Because this is the year that her mother is going to leave Alba's abusive father. Hopefully. If she's strong enough to finally, finally do it.
Alba is surprised to find that she loves Barcelona, forming a close relationship with her grandmother, meeting a supportive father figure, and making new friends. Most of all, she discovers a passion and talent for bread baking. When her beloved bakery is threatened with closure, Alba is determined to find a way to save it--and at the same time, she may just come up with a plan to make their family whole again.
From the author of How to Make Friends with the Sea comes a heartfelt story of finding one's chosen family, healing, and baking.
Tanya Guerrero's How to Make Friends with the Sea is a middle grade debut novel set in the Philippines about a young boy's challenges with anxiety while his mother fosters an orphaned child with a facial anomaly.
Pablo is homesick.
He's only twelve years old, but he's lived in more countries than he can count. After his parents divorced, he and his mother have moved from place to place for years, never settling anywhere long enough to call it home. And along the way, Pablo has collected more and more fears: of dirt, of germs, and most of all, of the ocean.
Now they're living in the Philippines, and his mother, a zoologist who works at a local wildlife refuge, is too busy saving animals to notice that Pablo might need saving, too. Then his mother takes in Chiqui, an orphaned girl with a cleft lip-and Pablo finds that through being strong for Chiqui, his own fears don't seem so scary.
He might even find the courage to face his biggest fear of all...and learn how to make friends with the sea.
