Publishers Weekly
★ 06/14/2021
An aspiring young storyteller with retinitis pigmentosa discovers that she’s the only one who remembers life on Earth after waking up 380 years in the future in this suspenseful speculative novel. In the year 2061, a solar flare has altered the course of Halley’s Comet, putting Earth and its inhabitants right in its trajectory. Twelve-year-old Petra Peña, a resourceful Mexican American preteen who longs to follow in her cuentista grandmother’s footsteps and tell stories for a living, successfully boards one of the last ships off-world—as do members of a dangerous, cultlike group called The Collective. When Petra awakens centuries later at the ship’s destination, she quickly realizes that The Collective has wiped the memories—or lives—of her fellow passengers, and she must use her wits and Mexican folklore to protect the remaining humans and avoid the same fate. Through Petra’s gut-wrenching, tenderly crafted narrative arc, author Higuera (Lupe Wong Won’t Dance) explores how story can awaken empathy, hope, and even resistance in an audience. This is the work of a true cuentista: gripping, euphonious (“The wind carried it off far away into the stars”), and full of storytelling magic. Ages 10–14. Agent: Allison Remcheck, Stimola Literary Studio. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"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
"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
"A beautifully told story of what makes us human." — Minneapolis Star Tribune
★ “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)
“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 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
"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 heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once, and centers family, community, and the oral histories that keep us together.” —Tor.com
"Clever and compelling … wonderfully subversive.” – The Wall Street Journal
"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
★ “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)
School Library Journal
★ 09/01/2021
Gr 5 Up—The magic and power of stories and storytelling help a preteen in a terrifying future. In 2061, with Earth about to be destroyed, 12-year-old Petra Peña and her scientist parents and younger brother Javier are just barely aboard the ship that will take them to the planet Sagan when a group of zealots called the Collective, wanting absolute equality at the expense of any diversity, take over. Almost 400 years later, Petra is one of the last four "sleepers" revived, and the only one who somehow retains her memories of Earth. She uses the stories her family shared and a precious copy of Yuyi Morales's Dreamers to try to save the others in her cohort, her newly rediscovered brother, and what seems to be the last Collective child. Life on the ship, made even more claustrophobic by Petra's declining vision from retinitis pigmentosa, and filled with the translucent, drugged Collective, is particularly chilling. Mexican American Petra is a strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others. The ending leaves the door wide open for a sequel. VERDICT A keep-you-up-all-night, compulsively readable science fiction novel that offers much food for thought.—Mara Alpert, Los Angeles P.L.
NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
Frankie Corzo narrates this sci-fi thriller with the perfect combination of gusto and tenderness. Petra’s family is supposed to be crossing the universe, headed toward a new life on Sagan. But when she awakens alone after 380 years in stasis, she finds that a frightening group of fanatics has taken over the ship and destroyed all memories of Earth—except hers. Petra is a natural storyteller trained by her abuelita. Corzo creates such a compelling tone as Petra weaves her cuentos (stories) for the other children on the ship that listeners will understand how their power is enough to break through total brainwashing. Corzo keeps the story humming as Petra fights to save humanity from the fate of complete conformity and delights in the wonders of Sagan. N.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-06-16
With Halley’s comet barreling toward Earth, humanity’s last hope—including a young Latinx storyteller—retreats into the stars.
Only a select few have the opportunity to vacate Earth in the year 2061, travel for 380 years in stasis, and start a new life on the planet of Sagan. Tearing herself away from her grandma and her cuentos, or stories, Petra Peña follows her family aboard one of three fleeing spaceships. One ship—reserved for leaders and politicians—is lost. Petra awakens years later to find that the ominous Collective has taken over her ship. Along the way to Sagan, the Collective has ensured the eradication of any Earth-associated memories, reprogramming everyone onboard—and purging some—for the so-called greater good. Petra, however, eludes reprogramming. To survive the Collective’s fanaticism, Petra must play her part and participate in scouting missions on Sagan to help the Collective prepare for colonization. As she shares cuentos with other child passengers to stir their Earth memories, Petra concocts a plan to escape, seeking a rumored Collective-free colony of First Arrivers on Sagan. With poetic use of startling imagery and unabashed nostalgia, Higuera spins a tale that crosses the depths of space, interweaving Mexican folklore with a mystical strand of science fiction. It all works thanks to the author’s keen appreciation of storytelling’s role in shaping cultures, dreams, and lives. An overall slow burner, this tale packs a wallop.
An exquisite tonic for storytellers far and wide, young and old. (Science fiction. 10-14)
