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Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice
Additional information
| Author | Anna Lapera |
|---|---|
| Genre | Middle Grade – Contemporary |
| Release Date | March 5, 2024 |
| Publisher | Levine Querido |
Description
“Anna Lapera expertly voices a young girl’s middle school trials, but with a voice so unique and heartfelt you will be cringing one moment and cheering the next. She weaves a distinctive story filled with humor, family heartache, and secrets while a young girl releases the fear of her voice and grasps its power.”
— Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera
For fans of Donna Barba Higuera’s Lupe Wong Won’t Dance and Aida Salazar’s The Moon Within, comes Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice — a contemporary middle grade novel full of spunk and activist heart. Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: To get her period, and to thwart her mom’s plan of taking her to Guatemala, a place that has always been more of a mystery than an answer. Mani can’t imagine leaving behind Las Nerdas, her band of misfit friends, for the summer. But after she finds letters written between her mother and her disappeared-journalist aunt, Mani’s idea of what it means to be a woman takes flight. Reading the letters reveals both the beauty of Guatemala and its history of violence against women, and slowly transforms Mani from quiet bystander into budding activist.
About the Author
Anna Lapera is a writer, educator and (sometimes) runner based in the DC area. She comes from a Guatemalan mother and Hawaiian-Filipino-German father, and was raised all over the world.
She teaches by day and writes stories about girls stepping into their power in the early hours of the morning before the teaching day begins. She is a member of Las Musas, a 2022 Macondo Writers Workshop alum and Kweli Journal mentee, and has received financial support from Tin House, Kweli Journal and SCBWI.
When she is not writing or teaching, you can find her visiting trails and coffee shops in DC and Maryland, where she lives with her family.
She is the author of the upper middle grade novel, Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice. She is currently working on a historical fiction young adult novel as well as a short story collection for the grown folks.
