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.

6Our Heroine Learns to Advocate for Herself

Modeled after Sanchez’s own childhood, Julia’s takes place in Chicago in a working class family. After the loss of her older sister, the more-perfect character from the title, Julia has to cope with her grief and depression against a backdrop of a poverty. Judging by the fact that there are more Latino children living in poverty in the United States that any other race, this landscape may not be pretty but it’s real. Like Sanchez had to in order to become a writer, Julia learns how to advocate for herself. She is courageous and unafraid, a positive model to put out into the world, especially for young Latinas in similar situations without access to plentiful role models.

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