“Higuera has created a future world that has much to say about our present one.” - NYT review of ALEBRIJES by Donna Barba Higuera
Then there’s Donna Barba Higuera’s ALEBRIJES (Levine Querido, 336 pp., $18.99, ages 10 and up), a book my tween self would have flipped over. Centuries after the collapse of civilization, presumably due to our screwing around with our fragile ecosystem, two groups of survivors cling to life: the ruthless, ruling Pocatelans and the nomadic Cascabeles, who made the mistake of wandering into the Pocatel Valley back in the day, after which they were promptly segregated and subjugated. Life for the Cascabel orphan Leandro Rivera, 13, and his little sister, Gabi, 9, consists of petty thievery and digging up blighted potatoes, until Leandro rescues Gabi from certain banishment for stealing a strawberry. This selfless act sets in motion an adventure that soars above the dystopic fog.
Higuera (author of the 2022 Newbery and Pura Belpré Medal winner “The Last Cuentista”) has created a future world that has much to say about our present one. Individual responsibility, class consciousness, the power of forgiveness, the exploitation of a despised minority, the brutality of fascism (the potato blight inspires the Pocatelans to launch a pogrom-esque “thinning”), the eternal hope of the oppressed everywhere for a Promised Land (here called La Cuna, or the Cradle) are all in these gorgeously designed pages, with spot illustrations by David Álvarez. Plus the very cool concept of embedding consciousness into surviving Old World tech called alebrijes: brightly colored, lifelike drones in the form of hawks, eagles, cats, wolves, even a chameleon.
Leandro finds himself inside a tiny hummingbird, him, and us, to see the world through the eyes of this beautiful, fragile and fierce creature. It’s a brilliant choice by Higuera, a writer who knows her way around metaphor. “The smallest flap of wings can change the course of history,” she writes. Thank god for that. Given the sobering turn in climatic events, it’s well past time for some wing-flapping.
Rick Yancey
