Adrianna Cuevas

After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, the dictator Castro solidifies power in Cuba, and twelve-year-old Cumba is sent to live in Florida to escape becoming a child soldier. Cumba struggles to feel at home in the United States, missing his family--who are only ninety miles away--and wonders if he will ever see them again.

"If Mari Feijoo could, she would turn her family's Peak Cubanity down a notch, just enough so that her snooping neighbor and classmate Mykenzye wouldn't have anything to tease her about. That's why this year, there's no way that Mari's joining in on one of the big-gest Feijoo family traditions--burning the New Year's Eve effigy her abuela makes. Only Mari never suspects that failing to toss her effigy in the fire would bring something much worse than...

"A Cuban American boy must use his secret ability to communicate with animals to save the inhabitants of his town when they are threatened by a tule vieja, a witch that transforms into animals"-- Provided by publisher.