The Making of Yolanda la Bruja by Lorraine Avila is an inspiring YA debut in which a young Black Dominican woman, full of heart and spirituality, admirably defends her safe space.
Sixteen-year-old Yolanda "Yoyo" Alvarez is receiving frightening visions about the only white student at her Bronx school. She won't report Ben without concrete evidence--"When has anyone ever listened to a witch?"--and wants him calm until she has it. In the meantime, she dates José, who writes her soul-baring love letters; leads the Brave Space Club, where students "process" their "social reality"; bonds with her dad, celebrating his release from prison; and waits to be chosen by her Unknown, an entity who will become her spiritual guide. But Ben's racism becomes increasingly harmful. Yoyo is heartbroken. When her Unknown presents itself, Yoyo is driven to stop the white supremacist from destroying her school.
Avila builds a multidimensional character in Yoyo--who identifies as a queer, Deaf bruja, reads tarot, and regularly prays to her ancestors--and gives her a full, natural world to inhabit, weaving in Spanish and a beautifully complex family dynamic. Yoyo cultivates strength through meaningful action as school shootings reach an all-time high and the killing of Black and Brown youth is normalized. She acknowledges the deprogramming she needs after "growing up in a world... where whiteness is admired and Blackness is violently denied" and honors the ancestral sacrifices that ensured her existence. Yoyo knows she must be "magical" to survive--and so she is. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer