The Last Cuentista takes place in 2060 when Earth is going to be destroyed and three ships of scientists are the only humans who will leave to go settle a new world. The main character, Petra Peña, and her family are some of the people who are leaving. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes up to find that The Collective, a sinister group who believe only in sameness had taken over the ship she was on. The Collective had managed to get rid of everyone's memories -- everyone's but Petra's. Now Petra is the only one who knows anything about humanities' past, the last one who knows their stories. The Last Cuentista is probably my favorite sci-fi book and I would recommend it to anyone who thinks it looks interesting.- Kyra, ninth-grade volunteer
Publisher's description: 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. 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 . . . [by] systematically purg[ing] the memories of all on board - or purg[ing] 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?
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This gothic retelling of the fairytale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" turned out to be spookier than I expected. Haunting and atmospheric, my attention was captured from the start. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing as to what was really happening to the Thaumas sisters.
The Mitten, by Alvin Tresselt, is a story I still remember from childhood to this day. After a boy loses one of his mittens in the cold, snow-covered forest, a mouse discovers it and decides to use it as the perfect shelter against the cold. Once other animals take notice of this good idea, however, they all want to get into the mitten for warmth. Soon, progressively larger animals crowd into the mitten, wondering with every addition if it will still be able to fit them all. The folksy art style of this book puts readers right alongside the persistent animals in the chilly winter forest.
