{"id":42202,"date":"2025-04-19T20:44:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T00:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=42202"},"modified":"2025-04-19T20:44:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T00:44:56","slug":"review-of-iveliz-explains-it-all-by-andrea-beatriz-arango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=42202","title":{"rendered":"Review of Iveliz Explains It All, by Andrea Beatriz Arango"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iveliz_explains_it_all_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iveliz_explains_it_all_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-45143\" \/><\/a><em>Iveliz Explains It All<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Andrea Beatriz Arango<\/p>\n<p>Random House, 2022.  268 pages.<br \/>\nReview written February 15, 2023, from a library book<br \/>\nStarred Review<br \/>\n2023 Newbery Honor Book<\/p>\n<p>Iveliz is a seventh-grader who was hoping that everything would be better now that she&#8217;s in seventh grade.  But that didn&#8217;t happen.  We get to listen in on her thoughts and her struggles as we read her journal, written in poetry.<\/p>\n<p>We learn pretty early that Iveliz had something awful happen a couple years ago, but we don&#8217;t learn right away what it is.  Now, her grandma from Puerto Rico is moving into their home because she&#8217;s getting worse with Alzheimer&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>And even though Mimi loves her, she doesn&#8217;t think Iveliz should take pills or go to therapy.  One more person who thinks she&#8217;s not enough.  At school, she gets so mad at the bullies and fights back &#8212; which disappoints her Mami.  Why is Iveliz never good enough for her?  And surely Iveliz can make some rules that will set things right again.<\/p>\n<p>I read this book because it&#8217;s a Newbery Honor book, and I appreciate the Newbery committee bringing it to my attention.  It&#8217;s a compassionate look at a kid for whom life is just getting too overwhelming, spotlighting mental health and finding people who care.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/andreabeatrizarango.com\/\">andreabeatrizarango.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rhcbooks.com\/\">rhcbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0593564006\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/iveliz_explains_it_all.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/iveliz_explains_it_all.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p>What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango Random House, 2022. 268 pages. Review written February 15, 2023, from a library book Starred Review 2023 Newbery Honor Book Iveliz is a seventh-grader who was hoping that everything would be better now that she&#8217;s in seventh grade. But that didn&#8217;t happen. We get to listen in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,10,21,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-winners","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-contemporary","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45144,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42202\/revisions\/45144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}