Genre
This book fulfills the category for a Pura Belpré Medal.
Targeted Age Group
This book is targeted towards ages 10-14.
Summary
A young girl named Petra Peña flees Earth with her family as Halley’s Comet prepares to crash into the planet. After being put into a preservatory stasis, she wakes up hundreds of years later to find that she’s the only person who remembers life on earth.
Justification
I chose this book because the premise of having to carry on Earth’s memory through stories seemed especially important today, in a world of book banning and censorship of history in classrooms. Additionally, as someone who is bilingual, I was excited to see a book feature cultural storytelling that demonstrated bilingual storytelling. It gave me an idea of common story structures in the Spanish language (such as how stories open and close), and introduced me to new stories. The cover art also drew me in; the warm orange against the cool blue creates a beautiful picture, and the artwork evokes a soft, earthy feel despite the book being set in space. Overall, this book captured me from the start!
Evaluation
To start off, Petra Peña tells her story from a first-person perspective, and she is a compelling character to follow. She has retinitis pigmentosa, which initially adds some tension to her presence on the ship, because the Collective—the group sending only a handful of people away from Earth—is a eugenicist organization. Most importantly though, Petra’s internal growth throughout the story is well-explored and executed. Key aspects of her character include her devastation about leaving behind her family on Earth, and her strong desire to be a cuentista like her abuelita, fondly called Lita. We watch over the course of the book as she learns to be her own cuentista, adapting cuentos from Lita in order to inspire and comfort herself and the remaining humans from earth. Her care for others is an ever-present characteristic, and as she realizes the gravity of their situation on the ship, her determination to help people find a better life gives her the courage to face danger.
The setting is important to this book—not just as a place but as a place that must feel unfamiliar and contrast Petra’s memories—as it takes place mostly on a spaceship, and later on an unfamiliar planet. Because Petra is a child of a botanist and a geologist, she was raised with a great appreciation for the world around her, and her descriptions and cuentos of life on earth are highly contrasted with the “bright”, “stark”, and “matte” interior of the Collective’s spaceship (Higuera, 2023, p. 94). The first paragraph of the book alone sets the tone for Petra’s love for life on earth:
“Lita tosses another piñon log onto the fire. Sweet smoke drifts past us into the starry sky. Her knees crack as she sits back down on the blanket next to me. The cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon she’s made me sits untouched this time” (Higuera, 2023, p. 1).
These few sentences alone call to each of the five senses. Readers can smell the smoke, see the stars, hear the knees cracking, feel the warmth of fire and blanket, and taste the cinnamon hot chocolate. It’s not only an introduction to the titular cuentista, but an example of how Petra experiences the world around her, and how she will affect the reader’s view of the setting throughout the book. When she finally explores the planet Sagan, her descriptions are just as rich and full of appreciation for the natural world around her, compared to the ship. Higuera’s (2023) deeply contrasting settings enhance the discomfort that is felt on the ship, compared to the relief of experiencing the natural world.
The theme that I took from this book is that remembering is important, people are important, and stories help people remember. As Petra (again, the only person with her memories) finds out more and more about how the Collective has hidden away knowledge of Earth, she becomes determined both to retain her memories, and to help the other people restore their own memories. For the sake of not spoiling anything, I’ll simply say that Petra, whether she realizes or not, begins to wake people to their memories simply by telling her cuentos inspired by Lita. Petra’s friends instantly find comfort and community in the telling of the cuentos, demonstrating the power of stories, of listening, and of experiencing the world not just as it is seen but as it can be symbolized. In its own way, The Last Cuentista is a story told to the reader about how people misuse their power to censor knowledge and existence, and how we hold onto our knowledge by telling each other stories. In a time of book banning, educational censorship, and other aspects of knowledge censorship, this book is important in reminding us that knowledge does not belong to any one person, and that remembering our past is how we move forward to create a better future. Happy reading!
References
Higuera, D. B. (2023). The last cuentista. Levine Querido.
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