10. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

2022 Newbery Award Winner

listened on Audible (used a credit for it)

2021

336 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 1/30/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4ish
Setting: 2060 New Mexico and 2400 Planet in another galaxy

My comments: This book was awarded the Newbery Medal last Monday, which sent me in a tailspin to obtain an audio reading asap.  It was read beautifully.  The cover is gorgeous. And it was an absolutely interesting piece of storytelling.  I'm not a big fan of folk/mythology/storytelling, and there were lots of places in the book where very important stories were told, stories that needed to be listened to in order to understand messages from Petra's grandmother, and then from herself.  I had to force myself to pay attention to these parts.  There seemed to me lots of repetitive places, and sometimes the story seemed to drag a bit. Creepy in places, sad in places, clever and adventurous in others.  Some of the pondering seemed more adult than child-centered. Lots to think about.  Good story, but I wouldn't have chosen it for a Newbery....but I never really like/agree with the Newbery choices, so ....

Goodreads synopsis:  There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?