Book review: Grow up, Luchy Zapata

Luchy is determined to remind Cami how special their friendship is. They have been best friends their whole lives, and that can’t just disappear in a glitter cloud! But… what if Cami doesn’t even want still be friends?

Amanda’s thoughts

I’m always up for exciting stories about friendship. If you somehow got through middle school without any friend drama or breakups, then good for you. No, really – good for you! Because that stuff sucks. And it’s super common. And I never see as much of it in middle school books as I’d like.

Luchy is really looking forward to middle school because she will finally go to the same school as her best friends Mateo and Cami. But Cami is changing. She likes makeup and boys and doesn’t seem childish. She makes a lot of little cutting remarks to Luchy and suddenly seems to think she’s better than her. When Cami suddenly becomes best friends with a girl at school, Luchy feels completely let down. She thinks that everything will be okay if she can just remind Cami how strong and great their friendship is. But that thought is dashed when Luchy is played a nasty prank, which then takes revenge, which then takes revenge, etc. etc.

The girls make bad choices. They’re mean. They’re petty. They’re in middle school. They try to make new friends (which sometimes only seems possible when you lose old ones, especially when you’re trying to reinvent yourself) while dealing with some pretty serious issues, like changing family circumstances and not knowing their place in the world. Luchy struggles a lot with not feeling connected to Colombia, where her family is from. She doesn’t speak Spanish particularly well and doesn’t understand why her parents or grandmother would hope that she would feel a connection to a place she wasn’t born in, a place she’s never visited. As the school year progresses, she works on developing some connection to the country and learning more. She starts asking her family more about Colombia.

One of the takeaways from the story is that you may not be able to be best friends with the same person forever, but that you grow and change doesn’t mean you can’t continue to be friends, or at least kind to each other. That’s a pretty important reminder for middle schoolers who are trying to find their place not just in school, but in the world. Things change. People change. That’s okay.

A solid read with broad appeal.

Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9781665935968
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Release date: 23.07.2024
Age group: 8 – 12 years

Filed under: Book Reviews