Life sucks when you’re twelve. You’re not a little kid, but you’re also not an adult, and all the grown-ups in your life talk about your body the minute it starts getting a shape. And what sucks even more than being a Chinese-Filipino-American-Guatemalan who can’t speak any ancestral language well? When almost every other girl in school has already gotten her period except for you and your two besties.

Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: to get her period, and to thwart her mom’s plan of taking her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday. If her mom’s always going on about how dangerous it is in Guatemala, and how much she sacrificed to come to this country, then why should Mani even want to visit? But one day, up in the attic, she finds secret letters between her mom and her Tía Beatriz, who, according to family lore, died in a bus crash before Mani was born.

But the letters reveal a different story. Why did her family really leave Guatemala?

What will Mani learn about herself along the way? And how can the letters help her to stand up against the culture of harassment at her own school?

From debut author Anna Lapera comes Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice—a novel full of spunk and activist heart.

“Anna Lapera expertly voices a young girl’s middle school trials, with a voice so unique and heartfelt you will be cringing one moment and cheering the next. She weaves a distinctive story filled with humor, family heartache, and secrets while a young girl releases the fear of her voice and grasps its power.”—Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera