the last cuentista book review

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The last cuentista, common sense media reviewers.

Girl preserves history on new planet in fresh sci-fi twist.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

The Last Cuentista offers a glimpse of what it mig

The wisdom of our ancestors needs to be preserved.

Fourteen-year-old Petra Peña takes her Latino heri

Strong, resourceful Latina main character, her pos

Colonists are "purged" if they are deemed insuffic

The Collective drinks "tonics" at social gathering

Parents need to know to that Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista , winner of the 2022 Newbery Award, is a dystopian science fiction adventure in which Earth has been destroyed by a comet and a few survivors have reached the planet Sagan. Petra Peña, 14, wakes up early from suspended animation and…

Educational Value

The Last Cuentista offers a glimpse of what it might be like to live aboard a generational starship and travel to a far-off planet. The book offers a chance to discuss authoritarianism and the value of history and storytelling.

Positive Messages

The wisdom of our ancestors needs to be preserved. Oral traditions are important. Beware of people who want everyone to think alike.

Positive Role Models

Fourteen-year-old Petra Peña takes her Latino heritage very seriously, especially when it comes to passing along the cuentos (short stories) she learned from Lita, her grandmother. She's close to her 7-year-old brother and to her scientist parents. On planet Sagan, she works to preserve the history of Earth and bravely tries to protect the colonists in danger of being purged.

Diverse Representations

Strong, resourceful Latina main character, her positively portrayed scientist parents, and important grandmother role model. Preserving Earth's history and Latino stories, folklore, and Latinos' cultural heritage is a major theme.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Colonists are "purged" if they are deemed insufficiently useful. There is no depiction of the process. The Collective threatens to spray the colonists with airborne toxins.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The Collective drinks "tonics" at social gatherings; it's unclear how intoxicating they are.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know to that Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista , winner of the 2022 Newbery Award, is a dystopian science fiction adventure in which Earth has been destroyed by a comet and a few survivors have reached the planet Sagan. Petra Peña, 14, wakes up early from suspended animation and learns that the sinister Collective has taken over and is pursuing a campaign to eradicate history. There's no discernible sex or swearing, and drug use is limited to some "tonics" that may or may not be intoxicating, Violence takes place off-scene, as when characters are purged from the spaceship's life-sustaining systems.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

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What's the Story?

As THE LAST CUENTISTA opens, 14-year-old Petra Peña is about to join her parents and brother on an interstellar trip to another habitable planet. When she wakes up, she discovers she's been betrayed by the Collective, that her family members have been purged instead of resuscitated. Deposited on the planet Sagan, Petra looks for the opportunity to leave the other settlers behind while keeping the storytelling traditions alive.

Is It Any Good?

Storytelling can change the world, and this intriguing interstellar science fiction adventure explores the perils of colonizing another planet. Author Donna Barba Higuera delivers a new twist on a sci-fi staple, the generational spaceship. The antagonists are one-note members of a cult, but they're villainous in an interesting way. Petra is a highly sympathetic main character -- brave, compassionate, and resourceful -- working to save her family and their Latino history.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what it would be like to leave home forever, as happens in The Last Cuentista. What would it feel like to never see your family again?

Have there been campaigns in recent history to eradicate all mention of certain topics?

Why is storytelling valuable? How do folklore and mythology give meaning to the world?

Book Details

• Author : Donna Barba Higuera
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Brothers and Sisters , Friendship , Great Girl Role Models , Space and Aliens
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Levine Querido
• Publication date : October 12, 2021
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 10 - 14
• Number of pages : 336
• Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Awards : Newbery Medal and Honors , Pura Belpré Awards and Honors
• Last updated : April 12, 2024

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August 20, 2021 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

August 20, 2021 by Betsy Bird   Leave a Comment

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The Last Cuentista By Donna Barba Higuera Jacket Art by Raxenne Maniquiz Levine Querido $17.99 ISBN: 9781646140893 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 12th

** spoiler alert – Plot giveaways ahead **

The worst thing you can do to your dystopia is to let it grow stale. After all, the true joy of science fiction is its capacity for variety. Say the term “science fiction” and it conjures up images of robots and space rockets and the like. All fine and good things but the whole point of the genre is to think up things that could be. And what could be is infinite. That’s why it’s so silly when science fiction books for kids get all samey. The sky’s the limit (a silly phrase in this case since a lot of these books go far beyond the sky but you get what I’m saying). We’ve seen recent strides in middle grade science fiction stories that include non-binary or queer characters, and more than a few have intersectional leanings (the Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl comes immediately to mind). All this is to say that I probably should have been ready for the conjurings out of the brain of Donna Barba Higuera in The Last Cuentista but there’s something to be said for pleasant surprises too. A delicious mix of dystopian fiction, Mexican folklore, and good old-fashioned high drama, this is the kind of science fiction that has the potential to lure in even those people that don’t usually indulge in futuristic fantastical imaginings.

Halley’s Comet, man. Who knew it would spell the end of Earth? But when its trajectory got knocked off-course, it ended up headed straight for our planet. Now only three ships holding a scant couple thousand people on each will contain the last of humanity. They’re heading to Sagan, a planet that should be able to support life. The catch? It’ll take three hundred and eighty years to get there. Petra, her little brother Javier, and her mom and dad are some of the lucky ones. They’ll be put to sleep the whole time with recordings connected directly to their brains to teach them everything they’ll need to know when they arrive. But Petra doesn’t want to be a scientist like her parents. She loves her grandmother’s folktales and yearns to be a storyteller too. She expects she’ll be given them to listen to and then arrive into the future full of stories. What she doesn’t expect is that in the intervening three hundred some years a revolution will occur amongst the awake Monitors that are supposed to tend to the sleeping passengers. When she resurfaces, Petra will find that she’s perhaps the only person on the ship with memories of Earth. Because now the ones in charge are people with genetically enhanced transparent skin. People with a singular mind. People who would do anything to keep the knowledge Petra has from getting out.

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Stephen King once wrote a truly horrifying short story about space travel and a family having to be put asleep for the trip called “The Jaunt”. I guess it affected me more than I thought, particularly because I instantly thought of it in the book’s early moments. That’s when Petra discovers she hasn’t been properly put to sleep and can hear everything going on around her. She worries considerably that she’ll be awake for hundreds of years and frets about what that might do to her sanity. Space travel science fiction for kids is, as I mentioned, generally kept a pretty safe place. Higuera isn’t afraid to inject hers with a little fear. At one point in the tale Petra tells someone the story of la Llorona and you understand how the stories Petra tells and the stories Higuera is telling both require a bit of fear to make their best work. And it is Petra’s storytelling that is her secret gift. With storytelling she can overcome the barbarity of her enemies. She can break through false narratives and plant real ones. And she can ultimately win the day. This book is probably one of the best defenses of storytelling you’ll find in a novel for kids for quite a long time.

Of course, there’s a sadness at the core of the book, but I found personal ways around that. I mean, I can’t be the only reader that found out that Petra’s parents were dead and gave a sigh of relief. Is that terrible? Killing off the parents is a time-honored tradition in children’s literature and The Last Cuentista is no exception. It’s a little weird, but as an adult reading this book I found myself getting nervous about our main character having to protect her closest family members from the future in which they found themselves. Removing Mom and Dad from the picture frees up a book’s hero considerably. Not that Petra doesn’t feel responsible for others, but it does give her ample opportunities to become an active protagonist. Petra, I am sure, would love to be passive. But as passivity is precisely what the “Collective” would want from her, she is forced into a position of planning, strategy, and escape. Some of the best moments of the book are when she puts her plans into action. It’s fun to watch an author think through various contingencies (particularly when they’re contingencies that they themselves imagined).

It’s so tricky for a book to be both a standalone success and open to sequels. Higuera walks that line as delicately as she can. This isn’t an ending along the lines of other dystopian children’s classics like The Giver . Higuera knows that short of making this book 500-pages long, the smartest thing is to give it a temporary happy ending. I am dead certain a sequel will come along, but I for one will enjoy the ending spelled out for us here. It’s rooted in hope, one of the book’s many themes, and something we need increasingly in our children’s books these days. So for the kid that likes their science fiction dark with marvelous villains and a strong core message about individuality, storytelling, and hope, I can’t think of a better book to hand over. A dystopia you’ll be happy to dive into deeply.

On shelves October 12th.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Filed under: Best Books , Best Books of 2021 , Reviews , Reviews 2021

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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Book Review

The last cuentista.

• Donna Barba Higuera
• Science Fiction

Readability Age Range

• 10 to 14 years old
• Levine Querido
• John Newbery Medal; The Pura Belpré Award; TIME's Best Books of the Year

Year Published

Young Petra Peña, her brother and her brilliant scientist ride a rocket ship into space when Halley’s Comet crashes toward Earth. But after a 380-year journey, what will become of all the stories Petra loves?

Plot Summary

It’s 2061 and the world is ending. A sun flare has pushed Halley’s Comet out of its orbit, and that ball of fire is hurtling toward the Earth.

That’s scientific fact, as cold as space itself. And Petra Peña might’ve been petrified by fear had not her grandmother, whom the 12-year-old calls Lita, wove the idea into a Mexican folktale for her. She caressed the beloved girl’s head and purred out the story as only Lita could. For in Petra’s mind, Lita is the greatest of great cuentistas , or storytellers.

Petra longs to grow up and be like her one day. There is nothing like a cuento to calm her or help her hope for a better future. Why, Lita’s story of a great fire snake crashing back home to its mother Earth almost made the idea of leaving Earth for a new tomorrow sound rich with potential.

But to Petra, that rocket flight to a new world wasn’t a good thing at all. When Petra, her brother and Petra’s super-smart scientist parents flew off, Lita would be left behind. There’s only so much room on that ship, after all.

Their family, and only a few hundred others, would be the hope for humanity’s tomorrow. It would take 380 years to get there—with Petra and others locked in hypersleep while multiple generations of caretakers, or “Monitors,” watched over them.

As Petra laid back in her stasis pod, not only did she grieve for her grandmother but, in a way, she grieved for the stories. Would they be lost to all those years of interstellar travel? What would Petra remember? What would the future hold?

When Petra wakes nearly 400 years later, she finds that the future is plagued by something totally unexpected. The Monitors have become the “Collective,” a utopian society that has moved to eradicate all differences and conflict by making everyone equally featureless, dreamless and empty. In fact, they’ve completely eliminated some people that might have been problems, Petra’s parents among them.

And for those they kept—the young who could be more easily molded—they set about eradicating even the past , by erasing all of the sleeping traveler’s memories. Well, almost everyone’s. Thanks to a malfunction, Petra’s memory remains intact.

Now she is the only person who can save people from the Collective. And all she has is her cuentos. How will she capture the spirit and power of the tales and secretly lead her new brainwashed friends back to the truth of who they once were and what they can be once again?

Truly, hope for humanity’s future will all come down to a young girl named Petra: the last cuentista.

Christian Beliefs

It’s suggested that Lita was a woman of faith. Petra even thinks that Lita would have wanted her to pray when she meets great trials, but Petra can’t bring herself to pray to God. “I have nothing to say to Her right now,” the girl notes.

Petra finds some rosary beads—a treasured item her father made from discovered stones. She rubs the smooth stones and wonders if, “Jesus’ power works here on the other side of the universe.”

Petra makes note of a creature called a Jesus-lizard.

Other Belief Systems

Petra does, however, imagine her grandmother saying: “Oh, mija! I have waited so long to hear your sweet voice. I am with your ancestors.”

Authority Roles

Petra’s parents are kind and loving. And it’s stated that Petra’s grandmother has spent as much time as possible with the girl, raising her on her family’s stories and folktale stories shaped to convey wise lessons.

When they are all gone, however, the main source of authority is a narrow-minded Collective leader named Nyla. The Collective wants total control—genetically relegating everyone in their group to the same translucent-skinned appearance and a neutered lack of individuality. Nyla is the embodiment of that determination to control completely. (We do see a few cracks in that totalitarian veneer, however, in relation to a young Collective member who she treats almost like a son.)

With that as the guiding force, Petra must take on a more parental role. She guides young memory-wiped and reprogrammed children all close to her age. Petra slowly gives them a sense of their past and tries to nudge memories of that past to the fore.

Petra finds a secret vault on the ship that holds the mementos and keepsakes of the families that had been put in hibernation. “The things represent what we loved most: our home, our friends, our families,” Petra states.

Profanity & Violence

Petra imagines her aunt and Lita—both left behind—sitting together and drinking warm cups of spiked coffee as they look toward the skies. The members of the Collective drink “tonics” of various colors. One or more of them appear to have alcoholic or numbing properties.

The Collective is not above murder at any point if it serves the purpose of the Collective’s societal goals. This is quite evident when Petra discovers the purged pods of hundreds of people—including her parents. This knowledge also raises a constant threat of peril and harm as Petra secretly works against the Collective’s wishes.

There are also some incredibly toxic plants on the surface of a new habitable planet the space travelers reach. Nyla demands that they be made into a deadly aerosol. Nyla later bombs an area with the deadly stuff (we don’t see any of those potentially killed.)

One member of the Collective explores the planet and is infected with something that causes his skin to blister and be covered in painful boils. Petra does all she can to help him, but he later dies.

As the ships are first leaving Earth, protestors attack and one of the three crafts is destroyed, killing hundreds of people.

Sexual Content

Petra spots a photo of one of her friends with her two moms.

Discussion Topics

Do you have a family member who tells stories of the past or tales of the future? What do you think about that form of remembering or reimagining? Are stories important?

Did you know that Jesus often told people stories to help illustrate a point He wanted to make? Take a look at Matthew 13:1-58 for an example. Why do you think He did that rather than just telling people what God wanted?

What kinds of stories does your family tell? What stories do you like best?

What was your favorite part of this tale?

Get free discussion question for books at focusonthefamily.com/magazine/thriving-family-book-discussion-questions .

Additional Comments

The Last Cuentista may surprise some with the fact that it is primarily a science fiction story about interstellar travel and humanistic maleficence. That said, this adventure, full of twists and turns, definitely points to the idea that family, remembrance and story are all valuable parts of a happy life.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

Review by Bob Hoose

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Best Books for Kids » Ages 9-12

The last cuentista, by donna barba higuera.

***Winner of the 2022 Newbery Medal**

Recommendations from our site

Science fiction blended with Mexican folklore. If you leave Earth in the knowledge that you can never return, what will you want to take with you? 12 year old Petra Peña chooses her grandmother’s stories. But on board her spaceship a fanatical Collective is bent on creating a utopia by erasing everyone’s memories and purging those they are unable to reprogramme. If we make a new society by forgetting what we have left behind, will we know what it is to be human? A novel about the importance of remembering stories and passing them on, and of creating our own stories.

Best Kids' Books of 2022

A novel that blends science fiction and Mexican folklore. Ages 10-14: read more about this book in our selection of best books of 2022 for kids .

Best Books for Teens of 2022

Science fiction blended with Mexican folklore. If you leave Earth in the knowledge that you can never return, what will you want to take with you? 12 year old Petra Peña chooses her grandmother’s stories. But on board her spaceship a fanatical Collective is bent on creating a utopia by erasing everyone’s memories and purging those they are unable to reprogramme. If we make a new society by forgetting what we have left behind, will we know what it is to be human? A novel about the importance of remembering stories and passing them on, and of creating our own stories. Ages 10-14

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The Last Cuentista: Newbery Medal Winner Hardcover – October 12, 2021

• Print length 336 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 5 - 9
• Dimensions 5.95 x 1.1 x 8.55 inches
• Publisher Levine Querido
• Publication date October 12, 2021
• ISBN-10 1646140893
• ISBN-13 978-1646140893
• See all details

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Levine Querido (October 12, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1646140893
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1646140893
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10+ years, from customers
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 5 - 9
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.95 x 1.1 x 8.55 inches
• #18 in Children's Dystopian Fiction Books
• #20 in Children's Multicultural Literature
• #1,357 in Children's Fantasy & Magic Books

About the author

Donna barba higuera.

Donna Barba Higuera grew up in a tiny desert town in central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. Her favorite childhood activities were calling the library's dial-a-story over and over again and sneaking into a restricted pioneers' cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstones for inspiration. Donna's Middle Grade and Picture books reinvent history, folklore and her own life experience into compelling storylines.

Donna lives in Washington state with her family, three old dogs and one frog.

For info on all her books and educational guides visit www.dbhiguera.com

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Customers say

Customers find the story compelling, heartwarming, and adventurous. They also describe the fantasy elements as deep, imaginative, classic, and a message of hope and transformation. Readers describe the emotion as beautiful, melancholy, and entertaining. They praise the writing style as brilliant, smart, and surprising.

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Customers find the story compelling, heartwarming, and adventurous. They also say the book holds interest, is thought-provoking, and surprising the entire way. Readers also appreciate the oral tradition and sci-fi thriller. They praise the quality of the physical book and the attention to detail.

"...There were so many emotional moments throughout the story that either forced me to put the book down for a bit or had tears running down my face...." Read more

"...The story is compelling , heart-warming, and adventurous...." Read more

"I was surprised at the complexity of this story , since it was supposedly geared for such a young audience...." Read more

"...A quick read, engaging and imaginative, that blends SF with "teen saves friends from dystopic future" in a fresh, hopeful way...." Read more

Customers find the book deeply imaginative, incredible, and magical. They also appreciate the beautiful imagery and connections to Spanish folklore. Readers describe the dystopian world as terrifying, realistic, and classic. They say the book has a message of hope and transformation.

"...This book explores the importance of diversity, creativity and the stories of our history." Read more

"...First of all, this was a terrifying realistic dystopian world with unity taken too far. I can’t explain how much it freaked me out...." Read more

"...A quick read, engaging and imaginative , that blends SF with "teen saves friends from dystopic future" in a fresh, hopeful way...." Read more

"Such a great story, with a beautiful blend of dystopian, science fiction , and traditional storytelling...." Read more

Customers find the book beautiful, heartfelt, and thought provoking. They also describe it as a joyful, lyrical tale.

"...The story is compelling, heart-warming , and adventurous...." Read more

"...It's so beautifully written, heartfelt and thought provoking especially given the current state of the world...." Read more

"...It is amazing, suspenseful, emotion evoking , and familiar. The story is told in the same manner as Lita would tell 🙂. I’m just sad it’s over!..." Read more

"This is a beautiful and sad and joyous and lyrical tale!..." Read more

Customers find the writing style brilliant, smart, and surprising the entire way. They also describe the book as a quick read that blends SF with teen.

"...Relatable characters, well-drawn setting, nimble prose (free of lazy/inappropriate profanity), and logical plot. Nicely done, Ms Higuera!" Read more

"...It's so beautifully written , heartfelt and thought provoking especially given the current state of the world...." Read more

"This book stays with you like a dream you can't shake. It's brilliantly written , smarty crafted, and surprising the entire way. Truly a work of art...." Read more

"... Well written and deeply imaginative. I highly recommend it." Read more

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An Author Imagines the Future of Storytelling

BY Ana Grilo • Oct. 19, 2021

Donna Barba Higuera’s The Last Cuentista   (Levine Querido, Oct. 12) takes place in the year 2061, when the world is about to end. Humanity’s last chance is a journey deep into space, with a chosen few to spend 370 years in stasis. Twelve-year-old Petra Peña’s family is one of the lucky ones, but when she awakes in a future where everyone has been reprogrammed by a nefarious Collective, she realizes her suspended animation failed and she is the only one with the memories of the past intact. What follows is a powerful tale of hope, survival, and the power of storytelling. Higuera spoke to us via Zoom from her home in Washington state. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Your story focuses on storytelling as a source of inspiration and comfort as well as something that is intrinsically connected to identity, memory, and resistance. The book’s villains conflate knowledge of stories and history with control, associating storytelling and recordkeeping with negative outcomes and emotions.

The opposition in the book is the Collective, and they’re trying to create a perfect society by erasing the past. The Collective wants to create a society where there’s no suffering or hunger. Most of us would love for that to happen, but their motto is to create a “new history,” and that involves forgetting and eliminating the memory and the record of what it means to be human. To erase our knowledge of war and other horrific events throughout history allows us to repeat our mistakes.

There is a moment in the book when one of the characters, in referring to the Collective, says, “What they want isn’t so much the scary part, it’s how they propose doing it.”

Petra is the last cuentista, the last storyteller, because she is the only one left with her memories intact. She ultimately must make a difficult choice about whether to keep them or not—and how to use her skill to help others.

In oral tradition and storytelling, part of being a storyteller is that they do get to take what they have experienced in their own lives and embellish stories and make them their own, have them serve them in that moment. Maybe not just for the people they’re telling this story to, but it might be cathartic to the storytellers themselves and what they are dealing with, whether that’s grief or pain. But also to be able to see those around them and what they need, and that’s what Petra does because she realizes if she is going to help others, first she needs them to remember . She needs them to know what it feels like to be courageous or to have hope. Or to have compassion for one another and what it means to be human. So she takes these stories that may not have all of those elements and embellishes them and weaves those themes into her storytelling.

You never shy away from harrowing moments, and Petra goes through a lot of tragedies. Given the book’s intended audience, did you ever feel like there was a line not to be crossed?

Petra has to work through her grief and decide if she is going to dwell in this loss or is going to be become the heroine of her story, save herself and others. We don’t give kids credit sometimes to handle those difficult topics. This past year and a half, kids have seen humans treat each other horribly, and they’ve seen death, and they understand it. They see it in the news, they know what’s happening, and so we need to give them the tools to cope with that. Seeing another child cope [and] watching her grow will hopefully help them. I hope they’ll see that there are these moments of victory where Petra overcomes what happens to her.

You incorporate elements of Mexican folklore, too—stories in many ways much darker than your typical fairy tale.

Sometimes there are stories in one culture that are far more edgy and creepy than stories that might be similar in another culture. Growing up as a mixed-race kid, I was balancing these stories I was hearing from my Mexican culture versus my American culture. The American and European fairy tales seem a lot tamer than the stories that I was hearing from my Mexican grandmother and family, from the oral tradition. Depending on the storyteller, the story may be creepy just [from] their mannerisms or facial expressions and how they’re telling this story. I didn’t dare share my grandmother’s stories with my friends during sleepovers because I felt they could not handle them. Interesting—I now realize I was gatekeeping to protect them!

Mixing those tales with science fiction created a unique novel.

When I thought of this story and where it came from, the setting came first: I’m going to write this story about this girl who travels to another planet. Then the question came about what would be most important to that character. I asked myself what I valued the most, and that’s storytelling: I love stories, I love folklore, I love reading. I love the stories that were handed down to me, generation to generation, from my ancestors. But I also love science fiction; I grew up on Star Trek , Star Wars, The Twilight Zone , Ursula K. Le Guin. Those two things might seem incongruous, but because I love both so much, they felt very harmonious to me.

Ana Grilo is co-editor of the Hugo Award–winning blog  The Book Smugglers   and co-host of the  Fangirl Happy Hour   podcast .  

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Donna Barba Higuera Wins Newbery Medal for ‘The Last Cuentista’

“Watercress,” illustrated by Jason Chin and written by Andrea Wang, won the Caldecott Medal.

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By Elizabeth A. Harris

“ The Last Cuentista ,” Donna Barba Higuera’s dystopian yet hopeful middle-grade novel, received this year’s John Newbery Medal on Monday, winning one of the most prestigious prizes in children’s literature.

In the book, published by Levine Querido, 12-year-old Petra Peña and her family are among those chosen to escape Earth before Halley’s comet collides with the planet. Put to sleep for nearly 400 years, they wake up with everyone’s memories erased but Petra’s.

In The New York Times Book Review, Tae Keller, who won the Newbery last year for “When You Trap a Tiger,” said “The Last Cuentista” “certainly veers into the dark end of middle-grade fiction, with brainwashing, ‘purging’ (murder, though always off-page) and, yes, the destruction of our entire planet. But it doesn’t dwell in the darkness, preferring to give its readers healthy doses of hope, wonder and page-turning action.”

The Randolph Caldecott Medal, the top award for an American picture book, went to “ Watercress ,” illustrated by Jason Chin and written by Andrea Wang. The book, published by Neal Porter Books, follows a young Chinese American girl living in a mostly white town in rural Ohio in the 1970s.

Reviewing the book for The Times, Jennifer Krauss wrote that the watercolor illustrations, which draw on both Chinese and Western techniques, combine “meticulous, gut-wrenching realism with dreamlike panoramas.”

The Newbery and Caldecott awards were among the children’s literature prizes and honors presented by the American Library Association on Monday at a virtual ceremony.

The most honored book was “ Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre ,” written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, the book won both the Coretta Scott King illustrator and author awards, which are presented to African American writers and illustrators.

“Unspeakable” was a finalist for the Caldecott as well as the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, which went to “The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice With Art,” written by Cynthia Levinson and illustrated by Evan Turk.

The Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature went to “ Firekeeper’s Daughter ,” a debut novel written by Angeline Boulley and published by Henry Holt and Company. The book is being adapted for television at Netflix by Higher Ground, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company.

The Stonewall Book Awards, which recognize books with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes, went to “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” and “ Too Bright to See .”

“Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” by Malinda Lo, won in the young adult literature category. Her book, which also won the National Book Award for children’s literature in 2021, takes place in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare and follows a queer 17-year-old.

“Too Bright to See,” by Kyle Lukoff, won in the children’s literature category. A finalist for last year’s National Book Award, it is about an 11-year-old named “Bug” who is transgender.

A complete list of the winners and honorees can be found at ALA.org/YMA .

Elizabeth A. Harris writes about books and publishing for The New York Times.  More about Elizabeth A. Harris

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The Last Cuentista : Book summary and reviews of The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

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The Last Cuentista

by Donna Barba Higuera

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• Genre: Literary Fiction
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About this book

Book summary.

From Pura Belpré Honor-winner Donna Barba Higuera—a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human.

Había una vez ... 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. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. 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. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged 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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Media reviews, reader reviews.

TIME's Best Books of the Year Wall Street Journal's Best of the Year Minneapolis Star Tribune's Best of the Year Boston Globe's Best of the Year BookPage's Best of the Year Publishers Weekly's Best of the Year School Library Journal's Best of the Year Kirkus Reviews' Best of the Year Bank Street's Best of the Year Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best New York Public Library Best of the Year "Gripping, euphonious, and full of storytelling magic." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others." - School Library Journal (starred review) "Higuera spins a tale that crosses the depths of space, interweaving Mexican folklore with a mystical strand of science fiction." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "The brilliance of Higuera's narrative is that it shows rather than tells us the power of story. As Petra shares her tales and they guide her shipmates out of darkness, readers will find corners of their own hearts illuminated as well. This book is gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes - truly a beautiful cuento." - New York Times "Clever and compelling . wonderfully subversive." - The Wall Street Journal

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Author Information

Donna barba higuera.

Donna Barba Higuera grew up in Central California and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. She has spent her entire life blending folklore with her experiences into stories that fill her imagination. Now she weaves them to write picture books and novels. Donna's first book, Lupe Wong Won't Dance , won a PNBA Book Award and a Pura Belpré Honor.

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The Last Cuentista

Relocating to a new planet after Earth is destroyed, 12-year-old Petra Peña’s suspended animation fails during the 370-year journey, so when all the other children are mysteriously reprogrammed and the adults purged, Petra becomes the lone bringer of Earth's now forbidden stories and her grandmother's Mexican folklore to a changing humanity.

2022 Newbery Medal

2022 Pura Belpré Medal

Kirkus Reviews - Best Middle Grade Book List 2021

School Library Journal - Best Middle Grade Book List 2021

For Press Inquiries

Please contact Irene Vázquez with Levine Querido: [email protected]

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Reviews for  the last cuentista, publishers weekly , starred review.

"This is the work of a true cuentista: gripping, euphonious (“The wind carried it off far away into the stars”), and full of storytelling magic."

Book Club , Noteworthy

‘The Last Cuentista’ by Donna Barba Higuera Book Review

by Nancy S. Collett | Sep 2022

The Last Cuentista  by Donna Barba Higuera is a dystopian tale about the power of stories and the importance of diversity.

It follows Petra Peña who, along with her family and a few hundred others, leave Earth for a new planet after a comet strike. When they arrive on Sagan, Peña learns that she is the only person who remembers Earth. To keep her people’s history alive, she begins to use her gift for storytelling that was passed on to her by her family.

Peña is brave, compassionate and resourceful while working to save her family and its Latino history. The mind-wiping antagonists are members of a cult who are portrayed in interesting villainous ways. Especially fitting for a novel about storytelling, the language Higuera employs is powerful and effective, and as a Spanish speaker myself, I enjoyed hearing the “Spanglish” used throughout this story.

Higuera reminds of us of the importance of the past and why we must remember it all for the sake of our future. This must read for the whole family is perfectly paced in world and character building, which helps balance the suspense in this fantastical world. I also strongly recommend the audio book.

Nancy S. Collett is a librarian at R.H. Stafford Library. Find more to read at  washcolib.org .

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The last cuentista by donna barba higuera.

The Last Cuentista, winner of this year’s Newbery medal is thought-provoking but leaves other thoughts unexplored.  

The Last Cuentista by  Donna Barba Higuera. Levine Querido (Scholastic), 2021, 314 pages

Reading Level : Middle Grades , ages 10-12

Recommended for : ages 10-15

The Final Frontier?

Petra Peña is saying good-bye to her grandmother, Lita. They both know it’s good-bye; a comet is speeding towards earth and all human life that remains will be extinguished. But a few will escape via space transport to Sagan, a terraformed planet meant to be their new home. Petra’s parents, whose expertise in botany and geology will be needed, are selected for transport. All has been carefully planned. During the journey, which will take centuries, the parents’ accumulated knowledge will be downloaded into the brains of Petra and her brother Javier as the family sleeps in hypersuspension. Once they’ve arrived, the second-generation Peñas will already be equipped to carry on the work necessary for the colony’s survival.

Petra doesn’t want to be a geologist or a botanist—she wants to be a cuentista , or storyteller, like her beloved Lita. Upon awaking in the transport, however, it doesn’t matter what she wants. Plans have gone horribly wrong. Her parents have been terminated, and probably her brother too. The human-like beings who occupy the ship are a Collective ruled by a cold and ruthless Chancellor. They have arrived at planet Sagan, but before they disembark the few surviving humans (all children) must test it for possible harm. Petra is now Zeta-1, a tool of the Collective. Her expeditions to the surface are for the common good, and when she’s no longer useful, so will be her termination.

What’s a Story Worth?

With echoes of The Giver, Brave New World , and A Wrinkle in Time , The Last Cuentista stakes out its own territory. Like those books, it wrestles with big questions. In order to abolish conflict and want, the Collective has also eliminated what makes us human: our stories and traditions. Petra instinctively rebels: “by honoring our past, our cultures, our ancestors—and remembering our mistakes—we become better.” By eliminating those things, we become less. We could even, as Petra’s father feared, become evil.

What stories matter, though? Not important: “All stories have value. Readers and listeners should decide whether stories speak to them or not.” Lita’s stories were drawn mainly from Mexican tradition, and as that it Petra’s heritage she feels a natural affinity. Lita’s Catholicism is a bit more fraught, offering Petra some comfort but no conclusions. She wonders whether “the whole Jesus thing” works so far outside her own solar system. Does God rule this part of the universe? Maybe not. When trying to pray, Petra hears nothing from God, “And I have nothing to say to Her right now anyway.”

The novel raises thought-provoking questions, and fiction isn’t designed to provide answers. But it can, sometimes, point in the right direction. The Last Cuentista points in the same general direction as “whatever works for you.” Pick the story that accords with your truth and heritage, it seems to suggest. But only one story, we believe, is objectively true.

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Read more about our ratings here .    

Awards : Winner, Newbery Medal, Winner, Pura Belpre Award             

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reflections : See our thoughts about classic sci-fi/dystopian fiction: The Giver , A Wrinkle in Time , and Ender’s Game .
• Review : Another space colony story from last year: The Lion of Mars .

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I have a bit of a challenge for Redeemed Reader if I can say that without sounding rude. If stories about stories are shallow and self-congratulatory (and there’s certainly a good case to be made that they are), what would you recommend authors who want to write about stories do instead? After all, authors want to write about what they’re passionate about and, not surprisingly, a lot of them are passionate about stories. How should they burn off that steam?

Cody, I make no recommendations; authors can write what they want. The trend of seeing stories as an end rather than a means to something greater seems to me a symptom of a rootless age that has lost, or is rapidly losing, its sense of the transcendental. Our stories are no longer about anything outside ourselves but rather in ourselves.

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Book Review: The Last Cuentista

Donna Barba Higuera takes on a futuristic dystopian space adventure in her story The Last Cuentista. A young, curious girl named Petra lives in a distant timeline on Earth, where scientists are helplessly searching for a way to avoid certain doom. While in the face of death, Preta leans on her abuelita’s stories, which are rich and full of life. Yet, as the clock starts ticking and Petra is forced to leave it all behind, the one thing she keeps with her is the power of tales. The Last Cuentista is a brilliantly written novel depicting a world in space, where the connection and true heart of human-kind is severed. Petra shows the reader what true perseverance is, and reminds us all of what it means to truly be human. (Reviewer Grade: 12)

The Last Cuentista

66 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Chapters 1-8

Chapters 9-16

Chapters 17-21

Chapters 22-25

Chapters 26-30

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Summary and Study Guide

The Last Cuentista (October 2021) is a dystopian, middle-grade novel by author Donna Barba Higuera. Higuera made her debut in 2020 with Lupe Wong Won’t Dance , which won both a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award and a Pura Belpré Award for children’s fiction. The following year, The Last Cuentista won a John Newbery Medal and a Pura Belpré Award. It also made multiple lists of Best Children’s Books of the Year.

Higuera grew up in the central California desert in a landscape similar to the setting she describes at the beginning of The Last Cuentista . Her feelings for this environment are lovingly rendered, emphasizing the stakes for the novel’s characters as Earth is on the cusp of destruction. The novel falls into the genres of children’s dystopian science fiction and children’s fantasy. It is intended for readers aged 10 and up. Some material may be intense for younger readers, though the overall tone of the book is hopeful, despite its dystopian classification. This study guide and all of its page citations are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.

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The story begins on Earth in the summer of 2061 but concludes 380 years later, on a distant planet called Sagan. The story is told from the first-person perspective of 12-year-old Petra Peña . Because she is in stasis during the voyage from Earth to Sagan, she is only 13 by the time the novel ends. In terms of her own temporal perspective, less than a year of her life has passed despite the monumental changes that have taken place around her while she slept.

When the novel opens, the Earth is about to be struck by Halley’s Comet, and a small, select band of scientists and their families have been chosen to board three spaceships to carry them to a new planet with an atmosphere that supports life. Their journey will take 380 years to complete. While the survivors sleep, generations of caretakers known as Monitors will look after them physically. Meanwhile, a faction on Earth known as the Collective is intent on eradicating all differences among people, thereby eliminating war and hunger.

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By the time Petra awakens, the Monitors have been replaced by the Collective, and the rest of her family has been purged. All attempts to brainwash Petra have failed, in part because a kindly Monitor downloaded literature and legend files into her memory so she can carry forward humanity’s creative legacy. She sets out to rescue the remaining Earthlings on the ship by taking them to safety on Sagan. They hope to find a group of First Arrivers who established a human colony centuries before. As the story follows Petra’s trials and eventual victory in the face of Collective’s pressure to conform, the novel examines the themes of Individual Versus Group Consciousness , Past Versus Future , and The Heart’s Memories .

Plot Summary

Twelve-year-old Petra Peña lives happily with her parents and seven-year-old brother, Javier , in the futuristic American Southwest in the year 2061. She loves to spend time with her grandmother, Lita , who is a cuentista or storyteller. Petra wants to be a storyteller when she grows up, and Lita encourages her not only to learn the myths and legends of her people but to embellish and change them to fit her own circumstances.

Petra’s happy existence is shattered when she learns that Halley’s Comet is expected to collide with the Earth that summer. Because her mother is a botanist and her father is a geologist, they are chosen to join a band of survivors bound for a distant, inhabitable planet called Sagan. Petra’s family enters the spacecraft and is placed in a sleep state called stasis. While she is asleep, Petra’s mind is meant to receive downloaded programs called En Cognito, or Cogs, that will make her an expert in botany and geology when she awakens. She has also requested an elective download of the world’s mythology and literature, which a Monitor, or caretaker, named Ben promises to give her.

As Petra goes into stasis something malfunctions, and she returns to wakefulness at various stages of the journey. She becomes aware that a faction among the Monitors has taken over the ship. This group is called the Collective, and they wish to eradicate humanity’s past and make everyone the same. They believe that selfish individuals have created war and poverty, so individuality must be abolished. Everyone should serve the group needs of the Collective, and there is no place in this new world order for creativity, imagination, or individuality. Over the past few centuries, the population of the ship has shifted from natural reproduction to genetic engineering, with subsequent generations of the Collective being produced in a lab on board the ship.

By the time Petra awakens, she is given the named of Zeta-1 and has been programmed to serve the Collective as a botanist and geologist. However, the same programming glitch that allowed her to periodically return to consciousness also allows her to retain memories of her past and of all the stories, or cuentos, that she learned from Lita. Petra is determined to find her family and escape the oppressive Collective but learns that her parents have been purged and her brother’s body is missing.

When she goes on an exploratory mission to Sagan’s surface, Petra makes plans to escape with the rest of the Zeta team and find the First Arrivers. Unbeknownst to her, the head of the Collective, Chancellor Nyla , wants to use a toxic plant to exterminate all human life on the planet. The rays from Sagan’s two suns are too intense for the members of the collective—their fragile skin blisters when exposed to it—so they must stay on the mothership while the human Zetas continue to explore. When a Collective member who joined this expedition develops severe blisters and dies, it becomes clear that Sagan will not be habitable for the crew, and they’ll have to search for another planet.

As Petra searches for a way to escape, she realizes that the cuentos she has been recounting to her shipmates are helping them remember who they once were. She also finds a surprising ally in a young Collective member named Voxy , who professes a desire to live in a world that has stories in it. Petra also finds her younger brother Javier onboard. He is now an elderly man who has served the Collective for his entire life, but Petra helps him tap into the memories contained in his heart and remember his real identity.

At one point, it seems that Javier betrays his sister by telling Nyla her plans, but this is part of his larger scheme to save Petra and the rest of the humans. He thwarts Nyla’s plans to spread a deadly toxin over the planet and sends the Zetas down to Sagan’s surface while he stays behind to prevent them from being followed. Petra and her team arrive safely, accompanied by Voxy, who would rather live among humans. The Collective ship departs, and Petra leads her band of rebels to the First Arrivers’ colony. She vows to recount all the cuentos she knows to the survivors and keep the legacy of humanity alive in this new world.

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Interview with Donna Barba Higuera about THE LAST CUENTISTA

Kathie: Hi Donna, thank you so much for joining me at MG Book Village today to talk about your new book, The Last Cuentista, which was released yesterday by Levine Querido. Can you tell us a little bit about it, please?

Donna: This book is about a girl named Petra Peña who is leaving for a new planet with her scientist parents as a comet approaches threatening to destroy Earth. Petra wants nothing more than to be a storyteller like her grandmother. Just her luck, the one upside to the journey that will take hundreds of years, will be a download of information. Petra hopes she can possess all of Earth’s folklore, mythology, and stories in her mind by the time they arrive to the new planet. But along the way a sinister collective of those monitoring the passengers begins to “purge” adults and erase the memories of the remaining children in hopes of starting over with none of Earth’s past mistakes or history to hinder their new plan.

But during this 370-year journey, when all the other children are reprogrammed, Petra’s defective download makes her alone the hidden bringer of Earth’s now forbidden stories and her grandmother’s Mexican folklore to a changing humanity.

Kathie: This book is based on the Mexican folklore that your grandmother shared with you. Why do you think oral storytelling is so important and leaves such a strong impression on children?’

Donna: In the oral tradition of storytelling, these tales are normally told to us by someone we trust. A teacher, a parent, a grandparent…so there is an added layer of trust compared to what we may read in a book. The storyteller can impart parts of their own personality or life experience, so it has the element of something more personal.

I think of my own experience as a child and how important sensory detail is. I could see my grandmother’s facial expressions. She could add a layer of tension with a quick jump. She could add sadness or humor to her tales with one look. That was something I couldn’t always get with the written word. She might give me a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon beforehand. I could taste and smell the story. To this day, I add cinnamon to coffee and hot chocolate and feel like I’m back by a fire and my grandmother’s knees crack as she settles in to tell me a story. I sense those feelings of humor, fear, tension and love I had in those moments.

Kathie: I really loved Petra’s loyalty, and the way she cared about those around her. What quality do you most admire in her and why?

Donna: Well, there are two, but because they intertwine in a way, can I count them as one? The first quality is her tenacity. There was a point in the book where I tried to imagine what I would have done if I’d been in Petra’s situation at that age. I would have crawled up into a ball and quit. But Petra feels so strongly about the stories she carries with her and her purpose that she doesn’t give up. But even when helping others poses roadblocks to her end goal, she still carries a layer of nurturing she’s learned from her parents and grandmother that she transfers to the other children.

Kathie: This book could fuel many fantastic discussions! I had so many questions running through my mind, like if we could start over as humans, how could we make things different, and how we can value art AND science as we move into the future? What do you hope a young reader will take away from your book?

Donna: I suppose I hope young readers take away concepts to ponder. I don’t know the answers to all the questions this book raises. But it isn’t meant to give the answers. I hope young readers will take away issues to contemplate and will have discussions with others. Maybe they will consider those topics together and make the world better place, one in which we work to be more appreciative of the arts and sciences.

Kathie: I’d love to know what items you would take with you if you were relocating to Sagan?

Donna: Well, I just moved. And this is no joke. Three quarters of the boxes were books. If relocating to Sagan, this would certainly not be an option. My obsession with books is partially what gave me the idea for that part of Petra’s story. I asked myself what I valued most. What would I take with me if I were leaving for another planet and could take very little? The concept of being able to download all the books and stories of Earth into my mind felt like the most priceless item I could imagine.

But one physical item? I’d take my dad’s old tobacco-infused pipe. Anyone who’s had a father who smoked a pipe will understand.

Kathie: Can you share an interesting tidbit about how this story changed over the course of editing?

Donna: This book started as a short story from a writing prompt. “Take a traditional fairy tale and make it sci-fi. I think I had a one-thousand-word limit. I used Princess and the Pea , and created a character who’d been placed in cryo for hundreds of years, but never slept. When she was removed, the world, people and culture had all disappeared, and she was not valued for the things she once was. The concept was both fascinating and horrifying. I wanted to develop it into a novel.

The first draft of The Last Cuentista was mainly plot-based. In rewrites and revisions, the character came to life. She shared my love of story, folklore and mythology. I decided if Petra was a girl like me, then she would surely bring the tales she loved most. Those told to her that she loved on Earth. At first, I didn’t go into detail with the stories. They were just ghostly versions of the original. My editor at Levine Querido, Nick Thomas, asked me to expand on these stories, and let Petra tell them the way she would in that moment. He was so right. Once we made those changes, the stories sprung to life with Petra as the storyteller.

Kathie: Is there any chance of a sequel to this book? I would love to know what happens next for Petra and her friends.

Donna: I hope so. I think of Petra and the other children all the time.

I had to know what happens to her in her life, so I recently wrote (just for myself) the end of her story. It was the most fulfilling ending to a story I’ve ever written. I read it to my husband and we both cried. Perhaps one day it will make it into a book.

But I’m also thinking of others in Petra’s universe. What happened to those left behind on Earth? Did anyone survive? If so, what is Earth like now? So perhaps I will write that next.

Kathie: Where can our readers go to find out more about you and your writing?

Donna: On my website www.dbhiguera.com or www.donnabarbahiguera.com They can also find me on Twitter @dbhiguera & Instagram @donnabarbahiguera

Kathie: Thanks for taking some time to chat with me today, Donna, and all the best on your book’s release.

Donna: Kathie, thank you! You’ve asked some amazing questions that allowed me to ponder things about my book I hadn’t yet considered.

And thank you for helping to welcome The Last Cuentista and Petra into the world.

Donna grew up in central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. As a child, rather than dealing with the regular dust devils, she preferred spending recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and over again, and sneaking into a restricted cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstones as inspiration. 

Donna’s Young Adult and Middle Grade books feature characters drawn into creepy, situations, melding history, folklore, and or her own life experience into reinvented storylines. She still dreams in Spanglish. Donna lives in Washington State with her family, three dogs and two frogs. Donna’s backyard is a haunted 19th century logging camp. (The haunted part may or may not be true—she makes stuff up.) She is a Critique-Group-Coordinator for SCBWI-Western Washington and teaches “The Hero’s Journey for Young Authors” to future writers.

Follow Donna on Twitter at  @dbhiguera .

The Last Cuentista is available now to purchase, and you can find it at your closest independent bookstore here:

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3 thoughts on “ Interview with Donna Barba Higuera about THE LAST CUENTISTA ”

A fascinating premise and an excellent interview. I found it especially interesting that a writing prompt got this story going. Thanks for sharing.

Can’t wait to read this!

It was a good book. Is there going to be a second book?

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