Firesnake by Donna Barba Higuera is the profound, stunning conclusion to her remarkable postapocalyptic middle-grade trilogy that began with the Newbery Medal- and Pura Belpré Award-winning The Last Cuentista.
Ninety years ago, humans terraformed the barely inhabitable planet of Sagan. Thirteen-year-old Itzel Tui Olmstead is the granddaughter of the colony's reclusive Earth-born storyteller, Cuentista Petra Peña, and the daughter of May, a scientist who died trying to understand Sagan, the humans' dangerous new home. When an unexpected message arrives from Earth, long thought destroyed--"our people are happy again... todos son bienvenidos"--Itzel's father decides he and Itzel will accept the invitation. But this means leaving behind Itzel's ailing Nana and the place where Itzel's mom died, the only world Itzel has ever known. So Petra gifts Itzel a piece of old-world tech that allows the girl to remember all of "Nana's memories and every last story she created." Thus prepared, Itzel embarks on a hope-fueled mission.
Itzel's sprawling journey is propulsive, and the disjointed factions that collide on Earth braid her own touching story of grief and longing together with the efforts and struggles of the trilogy's two previous volumes. Cuentista Petra's memories of Earth and her Mexican folklore-inspired cuentos burst forth in Itzel's emotional first-person voice, leading the girl to wonder if history will continue to repeat itself "even with the chance to do better?" Higuera's text is poetic as she immerses readers in a flourishing physical world through the eyes of a child who knows nothing but subsistence, and compelling moments exude both hope and tension as Itzel works to achieve peace. Firesnake is an exquisite cuento that honors storytelling itself. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer