{"id":46249,"date":"2026-04-27T21:55:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46249"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:55:43","slug":"review-of-silenced-voices-by-pablo-leon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46249","title":{"rendered":"Review of Silenced Voices, by Pablo Leon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Silenced Voices<\/p>\n

Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide<\/em><\/p>\n

by Pablo Leon<\/p>\n

HarperAlley, 2025. 240 pages.
\nReview written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
\n2026 Pura Belpr\u00e9 Honor Book, Young Adult
\n2026 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Silenced Voices<\/em> is a graphic novel with children on the front – that covers a horrific part of history, so this is firmly for teens, rather than children. The historical event was a genocide carried out by the Guatemalan government in the 1980s against indigenous people they claimed were helping the guerrillas.<\/p>\n

The graphic novel focuses on the story of one character at a time. First, a boy in America who hears about a genocide trial of a former Guatemalan military leader and asks his mother about it – who’s never said much about growing up in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Then the bulk of the book is his mother’s story – how she barely escaped, with the help of her sister, when soldiers came and wiped out their whole village in horrible ways. But before she could get to safety, she and her sister split up, and they never saw each other again.<\/p>\n

And there’s more in the present and in the past tying up that story. (I won’t give it away.)<\/p>\n

This is a graphic depiction (literally) of a family and culture traumatized and victimized – showing the fallout into the next generation. But I appreciate the positive and optimistic framing of letting voices that were once silenced speak up and that injustice won’t stand forever. All in a compelling and powerful story.<\/p>\n

artsypabster.com<\/a>
\nharperalley.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/silenced_voices.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silenced Voices Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide by Pablo Leon HarperAlley, 2025. 240 pages. Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book. 2026 Pura Belpr\u00e9 Honor Book, Young Adult 2026 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Starred Review Silenced Voices is a graphic novel with children on the front – that covers a horrific […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,32,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphic-novel","category-historical","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46249","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=46249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46463,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46249\/revisions\/46463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}