The Last Cuentista: Newbery Medal Winner

"Science fiction blended with Mexican folklore. If you leave Earth in the knowledge that you can never return, what will you want to take with you? 12 year old Petra Peña chooses her grandmother's stories. But on board her spaceship a fanatical Collective is bent on creating a utopia by erasing everyone's memories and purging those they are unable to reprogramme. If we make a new society by forgetting what we have left behind, will we know what it is to be human? A novel about the importance of remembering stories and passing them on, and of creating our own stories." -- Five Books
"The Last Cuentista is a beautiful middle grade story of a young Latina who must leave a no longer inhabitable Earth and learns the importance of adapting. Although this is a middle-grade dystopian novel, it is poetically magical while honoring the storytelling of our ancestors and Mexican folklore. The story is fun, vibrant, and relatable. Captivating the reader to partake in a voyage of unforgettable cuento (which means 'story' in English of what it means to adapt, believe, and find one's self." -- Al Dia News
"A beautifully told story of what makes us human." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Petra Peña is twelve when she and her family board one of the last ships leaving Earth just before its imminent destruction by comet. As the remaining Earthlings struggle to survive, all of the cuentos -- stories -- Petra grew up listening to will turn out to be more powerful than she could have imagined in this thrilling and hopeful work of science fiction." -- Boston Globe
"Truly good children's books engage and entertain while also helping young readers come to understand themselves and the complicated world they live in. The best picture, middle grade and young adult books of 2021 deftly rise to that challenge, telling stories about identity, allyship and more... Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista asks kids to consider the danger of adopting dogmatic beliefs without questioning authority figures." -- Time Magazine
"The brilliance of Higuera's narrative is that it shows rather than tells us the power of story. As Petra shares her tales and they guide her shipmates out of darkness, readers will find corners of their own hearts illuminated as well. This book is gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes -- truly a beautiful cuento." -- New York Times
"Clever and compelling ... wonderfully subversive." - The Wall Street Journal
"Readers will find in The Last Cuentista a promise that the past is not the enemy of the future, but a gift that grants the perspective to meet that future with compassion and bravery." -- Bookpage
"The Last Cuentista is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once, and centers family, community, and the oral histories that keep us together." --Tor.com
★ "Pura Belpré Honor-winning author Donna Barba Higuera (Lupe Wong Won't Dance) deftly blends Mexican folklore with science fiction in this thrilling and emotional post-apocalyptic novel." -- Shelf-Awareness (starred)
★ "Higuera spins a tale that crosses the depths of space, interweaving Mexican folklore with a mystical strand of science fiction." -- Kirkus (starred)
★ "Gripping, euphonious, and full of storytelling magic." - Publishers Weekly (starred)
★ "A strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others." -- School Library Journal (starred)