10 Reasons Why We Love Erika L. Sánchez’s Debut Novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

Before I give you a whole bunch of great reasons to pick up Erika L. Sanchez’s novel and read it until there is no more to read, let us pause for a moment to thank J.K. Rowling for writing about young but complex characters in tough situations 20 years ago, opening the door to a whole new breed of young adult literature, which treats our middle readers with same respect as it does adults.

Rowling’s wake has been the path for cult sagas like the Twilight and Hunger Games and for gems like R.J. Palacios’ Wonder. Sanchez is next in line with I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, a coming of age story with a sassy female protagonist. Here are 10 reasons why we’re still obsessed with this remarkable YA book.

8The Author Nails the Issue of Authentic Representation

Unlike other books that are more typical tales of “anygirl,” Julia’s is a story that desperately needs telling. Julia is Latina, providing some welcome representation for brown girls. Her age, 15, is culturally loaded, with the impending ritual of the quinceañera, which we don’t often see in literature. A great metaphor for what is outdated or irrelevant to a new culture kid, the ritual is shown as a public presentation of the self at a moment when that self feels unsure, a specific spotlight on the protagonist’s coming into being as an intellectual and a feminist. Julia’s growing pains are as specifically Mexican-American as the snacks that Sanchez describes in the book.

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