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LET'S TRY | THREE BY JENNIFER TORRES


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Miranda is the lead singer in her family's musical band, Miranda y Los Reyes. Her family has worked hard performing at festivals and quinceañeras. Now, they have a shot at the main stage. How will Miranda make it a performance to remember? Flor's family runs the petting zoo at Mr. Barsetti's carnival. When she accidentally overhears Mr. Barsetti and Miranda's dad talk about cutting the zoo to accommodate Miranda y Los Reyes's main stage salary, she knows she has to take action. Will she have the heart for sabotage once she and Miranda actually start to become friends?

★★★☆☆
Miranda is the lead singer in the family band Miranda y los Reyes. When traveling carnival owner Mr. Barsetti sees her sing, he offers the band a chance to join the performer roster. It'll mean the biggest crowds the band has ever seen! But in order to make this dream happen for them, Mr. Barsetti feels he'll have to cut someone else from the team (to make the carnival finances work out). It looks like the one potentially up on the chopping block is Flor and her family's petting zoo attraction.

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Knowing how her family's livelihood depends on the success of crowds at the petting zoo, Flor sets out to try to sabotage Miranda's performances. But can she honestly go through with her plans? Flor also feels a little guilty once she learns that Miranda's life is not as rosy and blessed as it might seem to an outsider. Though she loves to perform, Miranda is kept very much under her father's thumb --- she's forced to go where he says to go, perform only songs he wants, the way he wants them, and nothing else. Certain aspects of Miranda's life felt like Torres might have pulled at least a little inspiration from the life of Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez (the early years). Miranda and her siblings also largely live off of whatever food is left over from carnival food vendors at each stop on the tour. 

The kids get competitive once they realize there's an opportunity for them to earn a little extra money, sort of on the down low. For five bucks a day, their job is to walk around the fairgrounds carrying giant stuffed animals (the idea is to look like everyday kids having fun at the carnival, who just won a huge prize). Walk by kids with their parents in the midway strip and get an extra fifty cents for every kid they get to play a game. The idea also comes up to take one's rival to the most questionable food trucks at the fair, load up on food, and then take them on all the super spinny rides! LOL 

So yeah, we get some laughs, along with an ultimately sweet story about rivals finding empathy and making unexpected new friends. The story covers a single day in the lives of Flor and Miranda, with each chapter starting with a time stamp to show how much time has elapsed before, you know, the "big conflict / resolution" finale moment. While the story had its cute moments and the setting was fun, I thought the ending rang a little weak. 
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Seventh grader Estefania "Stef" Soto is itching to shake off the onion-and-cilantro embrace of Tia Perla, her family's taco truck. She wants nothing more than for her dad to get a normal job and for Tia Perla to be put out to pasture. It's no fun being known as the "Taco Queen" at school. But just when new city regulations are proposed, and her family's livelihood is threatened, she will have to become the truck's unlikely champion.In this fun and multicultural middle grade novel, Stef will embrace her identity and discover what matters most. 


Stef Soto is being bullied by her former best friend, Julia, about her family's taco truck business. While Stef used to be proud of ol' "Tia Perla", as she calls the fixer-upper travel kitchen, now she finds it embarrassing when her dad comes to pick her up from school in it. Part of her wishes she could just be excused from ever having to work in the taco truck ever again. But you know, there is something special in the moments she gets to spend with her dad in between orders... those times he makes her something special to eat and they get to talk about her day. She can't deny the blessing of that. 
When new city regulations on food trucks threaten to possibly crush her family's finances, Stef takes it upon her young self to try to figure out a way to save the day. Meanwhile, she also has to learn ways to navigate the "helicopter parenting" way of life she's been raised under but is starting to age out of, as she craves more freedom the closer she gets to her teens. How can she get her loving but somewhat smothering parents to hear her side of things and get them past their fears of her growing up?

Wanting to attend her first big concert with friends, Stef volunteers for more chores, tries her very best to be extra sweet and helpful to show her parents she's responsible enough to start attending events sans parents. But will it matter when they have objections even to the idea of her taking a babysitting job?

Much to her surprise, Stef realizes what an integral part of the family Tia Perla (the truck) has become to the family. But once the realization fully hits her, Stef goes above and beyond to secure a future for the family business, just when her parents are nearly ready to give up hope.  While her plans might not always work out as she imagined, everyone can't help but respond positively to her honest show of heart. 


Yet another heartwarming story from Jennifer Torres of family / friends putting aside differences and instead coming together to work toward a common goal. There's also a bit of an immigrant experience story mixed in, when we get into the backgrounds of Stef's parents. But ultimately, it's an enjoyable, universal story about a family's strength in numbers, and the big miracles that can come about simply by infusing your daily actions with love and kindness. 

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Griselda "Geez" Zaragoza has a love for beautiful things, like her collection of vintage teacups and the flower garden she and her dad planted in the front yard. But when his business fails, Griselda loses not just her home, but also her confidence and her trust in her unflappable parents. Tagging along with big sister Maribel, who postponed college for a job selling Alma Cosmetics, Geez dreams up a way to reclaim the life she thinks she lost. If she can sell enough tubes of glistening, glittery Alma lip gloss, she'll win a cash prize that could help jump start her dad's business. With ups and downs along the way, Geez will discover that beauty isn't just lost or found, but made and re-made.

When her father's landscaping business goes belly-up, 6th grader Griselda "Geez" Zaragoza, along with her mom and sister, is forced to move in with her grandmother. Meanwhile, dad moves six hours away to L.A. hoping to find work there so that the whole family can soon relocate. Griselda's teenage sister, Maribel, works as a consultant for Alma Cosmetics. When Maribel gifts Griselda a lip gloss from the company's new Fairytale Collection and Griselda gets a surprising offer from a classmate to buy it off her, "Geez" gets the first inkling that there might be something beneficial for her family to this whole work-from-home opportunity. 

Logan is a little like a day-lily, I decide. Blooming  anywhere, without any fuss. Sophia is a zinnia, cheerful and sun-loving. I'm not sure what kind of plant I'd be. Mom seems to think I'm like one of Ms. Dominguez's gardenias, something fragile that might shrink and wilt if the sun doesn't shine just right. That must have been the reason my parents told Maribel but not me that Dad's business was in trouble. That mom still hasn't mentioned Dad's truck. That she keeps insisting everything is going to be fine. But, slowly, I'm beginning to feel more like Lady Bird Johnson's wildflowers: sturdier than I look, growing even where you'd least expect.

Tagging along with Maribel to some in-home client visits, Griselda learns that the company is holding a contest for its young, underage consultants: all consultants in the 12-19 year old range are invited to join the Junior Associates Program. Sell 500 tubes of Fairytale Collection lip gloss by the end of the year and you're entered to win $5,000 and the chance to be Alma Cosmetics "Fresh New Face" (new teen spokesperson). Griselda joins the program with the goal to win the cash prize and revive her dad's business so the family doesn't have to be split up anymore. But she might have some surprising competition!


Griselda is given an interesting trait in her fascination with FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) history and her habit of collecting First Lady teacups, each chapter in this novel opening with an inspiration quote from a FLOTUS. She feels especially close to Lady Bird Johson for a few reasons --- their love of gardening; their mutual "being known more by your nickname than actual name" thing. Everyone in the story calls Griselda "Geez" even though she's not the biggest fan of it. The name actually ends up being at the center of one of the frustrating things about this book --- when a character says "Geez", you don't always know right off if they're addressing our main character or simply making an exclamation of some sort!

'Geez isn't a name. It's what you say when your dog chews up your best headband.'

And what? Lady Bird's actual name was Claudia?! Griselda also finds some inspiration for her business goals in the story of Lady Bird buying a failing business and turning it into one that made her a millionaire. 


I could feel for Griselda, experiencing the struggle so many kids have gone through throughout history: weathering the financial troubles of their parents; trying to make the best of things but then having to be the kid always in the free lunch line, a dead giveaway that your parents are dirt poor... those school activities you'd love to participate in but know you'll probably be left out of because of the extra expense to attend... Girl, I've been there. But you know, there's actually some pretty solid business advice dished out from Maribel in this story! It's a good little read to hand to kids interested in starting their own business, since it touches upon ideas such as how to equate ROI (return on investment), balancing supply & demand, how to keep interest in your company strong, all that good stuff. 

My favorite from Torres so far!

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