Alebrijes, by Donna Barba Higuera

     The latest story by the Newbery Award-winning author Higuera is complicated at the start, just like The Last Cuentista was, the book which won her the Newbery. Alebrijes won the Pura Belpre Honor Award, another significant achievement (any time you see a book with an award such as Newbery, Pura Belpre, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, or Printz you know it will be a good story, even if it turns out to be a story you don't necessarily like). 

    Higuera is a very talented storyteller, but it takes me a while for her characters and plot to begin to make sense to me. Alebrijes is really good, but it took about 75 pages for everything to start to click. Once it did, the book was very difficult to put down! This book is part fantasy, part science fiction, and part folk tale. It reminded me of books like Veronica Roth's Divergent and Marie Lu's Legend series, but Higuera writes a more complex tale, which, again, takes me a number of pages to begin to sync up with.

    Alebrijes is the story of thirteen year old Leandro and his younger sister Gabi who are introduced as orphans being "cared for" by a rather mean old woman. They live in fear and hunger with seemingly no hope for a better life. The story tales place far in the future, where the planet is nearly dead, as are most people, and Leandro and Gabi are simply trying to stay alive. When they are taken from the woman and placed in an orphanage, their lives are quickly changed forever. They are separated, and on their own each manage to change their worlds, all the while not knowing if the other is still alive or not. It's a difficult story to explain, as Higuera weaves a highly detailed story. But I remind you to push past the first third of the book and get rewarded with the last two thirds! There is a fair amount of Spanish spoken in the story, some of it not translated, and coupled with the challenging beginning, this book will take some focus and time. Like many things in life, if you are willing to invest in this book, you will be nicely rewarded! 4 paws and a wag!