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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: It’s All or Nothing, Vale
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WEBSITE: https://andreabeatrizarango.com/
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COUNTRY: Puerto Rico
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PERSONAL
Born in Puerto Rico.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Children’s book author, English language learner teacher, public school teacher, worked for nonprofits.
AWARDS:Newbery Honor for Iveliz Explains It All, Pura Belpré Honor for Something Like Home and for It’s All or Nothing, Vale.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
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A Puerto Rican native, Andrea Beatriz Arango is a Newbery Honor winning children’s book author who writes about Hispanic middle schoolers and their families, school struggles, mental health issues, and standing up for oneself. Her books are written in verse to reflect children’s own emotional growth. Arango draws on her experience as a public school teacher and a foster mother for material about children struggling with issues growing up.
In her 2022 debut middle-grade novel, Iveliz Explains It All, illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez, 12-year-old Latina Iveliz, who always gets in trouble at school, wants her first year in middle school to be the best, making new friends with Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, and not letting the bullies get to her. Nevertheless, she has a lot on her mind. Her father is absent from the family. Her abuela, Mimi, has moved from Puerto Rico to Iveliz’s home in Maryland due to her progressive Alzheimer’s. And Iveliz receives therapy and takes medication for her depression. She finds solace in writing poetry in her journal.
The Newbery winning book, written in verse, reflects Iveliz’s desire for understanding and for her voice to be heard. “Iveliz’s voice is relatable and strong… Iveliz’s first-person account amplifies the need for finding one’s voice and asking for help,” according to Alicia K. Long in Horn Book. In Kirkus Reviews, a writer remarked: “Full of heartbreak and compassion, Arango’s debut crackles with refreshing frankness and wit. The author excels at building Iveliz’s voice.”
Arango next wrote Something Like Home, a Pura Belpre Honor winner. Eleven-year-old Laura Rodríguez Colón in Virginia dislikes living with her estranged aunt Silvia, who is now her foster parent. Laura feels guilty because she called 911 to prevent her substance addicted parents from overdosing, causing them to be put into rehab and Laura to be removed from the home and put into her aunt’s care. She now faces a new home, new school, and new friends. Laura misses her parents but is told that children aren’t allowed visits in rehab. She hatches on a scheme to see them—she rescues a sickly puppy she names Sparrow and trains him as a therapy dog that she can bring into rehab to see her parents, and eventually get the family back together. The book is written in segments of free verse that describes Laura’s experiences.
“Arango’s writing is intimate and heartbreaking, tackling such hefty issues as cultural identity, addiction, the pain of displacement,” remarked Horn Book writer Amanda R. Toledo in a starred review, who added that Arango creates a believable voice of a girl in crisis. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted: “The clear narrative arc and strong symbolic system make the novel cohere, and Laura’s emotional landscape is realistically contradictory.”
With her theme of family in Something Like Home, Arango explained to Amaris Castillo in an interview online at Latinx in Publishing: “Family can look like a lot of different things…I really wanted to explore…a non-traditional home situation, or just in general that idea that you can have more than one home, and you can have more than one family. And loving one of them does not cancel out the other.”
Arango’s middle-grade novel in verse, It’s All or Nothing, Vale, set in Virginia, Puerto Rican seventh grader Valentine Mari Camacho is struggling to get back into the sport she loves, fencing, four months after a devastating motorbike accent that left her in pain and in rehab. A perfectionist, Vale expects to return to being number one, but her body can’t move that way anymore. At first she is jealous of the current fencing frontrunner, Cuban American Myrka Marerro, until she develops a crush on her. Vale is also in the middle of competing parental goals—her mother thinks she’s too fragile for fencing, while her father encourages her to continue.
“Vale’s vulnerable, angry free verse narration eschews overused disability storylines, intricately exploring issues including chronic pain, perfectionism, and parental expectations,” declared a Kirkus Reviews critic. In Booklist, Aryssa Damron praised “this tale of a tween struggling with chronic pain, the question of disability, and a queer awakening.” Arango spoke to Mathangi Subramanian in Kirkus Reviews about exploring Vale’s perfectionism and how kids are more and more pressured by parents and social media to be the best in sports and grades: “I feel like every kid has, at some point, felt, This is the only thing I’m good at. I can’t stop doing it or I’ll have nothing I’m good at, and how will I ever get anywhere?”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 2025, Aryssa Damron, review of It’s All or Nothing, p. 77.
Horn Book, September-October, 2022, Alicia K. Long, review of Iveliz Explains It All, p. 77; September-October 2023, Amanda R. Toledo, review of Something Like Home, p. 68.
Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2022, review of Iveliz Explains It All; August 1, 2023, review of Something Like Home; December 1, 2024, review It’s All or Nothing, Vale.
ONLINE
Andrea Beatriz Arango website, https://andreabeatrizarango.com/ (June 15. 2025).
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (February 10, 2025), Mathangi Subramanian, “Andrea Beatriz Arango Gives ‘All or Nothing.’”
Latinx in Publishing, https://latinxinpublishing.com/ (November 16, 2023), Amaris Castillo, “Andrea Beatriz Arango on Found Family in Something Like Home.”
about andrea
Andrea Beatriz Arango is the author of the Newbery Honor Book Iveliz Explains It All, the Pura Belpré Honor Book Something Like Home, and most recently It’s All or Nothing, Vale. Andrea was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she first discovered her love of writing and eventually became a teacher. She then spent a decade in the United States working in public schools and nonprofits. When she’s not busy writing about middle schoolers and their families, you can find her hoping to spot manatees at the beach. Andrea lives in Puerto Rico with her family and two dogs.
Profiles
Andrea Beatriz Arango Gives ‘All or Nothing’
BY Mathangi Subramanian • Feb. 10, 2025
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Andrea Beatriz Arango Gives ‘All or Nothing’
Andrea Beatriz Arango. Photo by Lily Graciela/Ciela Creative
Who do you become when you can no longer do what you love? This is the central question animating Newbery Honor author Andrea Beatriz Arango’s new middle-grade verse novel, It’s All or Nothing, Vale (Random House, Feb. 11), which our starred review calls “moving and insightful.” All or Nothing is the story of queer Puerto Rican fencing champion Valentina Marí Camacho, who must reshape her identity after a bike accident seriously affects her athletic abilities. We recently spoke to Arango about the book on a video call; our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve never read a book about fencing before! Why did you make this Vale’s sport of choice?
My sister was actually a competitive fencer. We grew up in Puerto Rico, and one day my sister had nothing better to do, so she went with my mom and my brother to this fencing gym. She ended up being really gifted and within, like, a year was on the Puerto Rico national youth team. When I was thinking about what I wanted my next book to be [about], I thought it would be really cool to do fencing, because I don’t see a lot of Latinas in fencing in general.
Also, when I was a kid, I wasn’t as supportive [of my sister] as I could have been. I hated having to go to her competitions, and I thought the whole thing was so violent. So I thought, What a great way apologize to her years later. To say, “Look, I’m showcasing your sport!”
That sounds like Vale’s family. Her sibling and her parents are trying so hard to be supportive, but they keep falling short.
I was a public school teacher for 10 years, and I’ve been a foster parent, so I’ve always been interested in the dynamics of family and friends who love you but don’t always know how to support you. I like characters that are fundamentally good people who have good intentions but are flawed. None of us are perfect, and none of us can be perfectly supportive of the people we love every single day. Everyone’s going to mess up in big or small ways. I like for kids to see conversations where both parties are able to say, “This is what I need. I’m not getting this from you.” I’m a big believer that if you’re exposed to things, then later you might remember, OK, this worked for this other person. So maybe I can try opening a conversation up in a similar way.
Why were you interested in exploring Vale’s perfectionism?
Every year we put more and more pressure on kids. We tell them they have to do certain things in order to be successful, and the bar keeps getting higher and higher. It could be about grades, it could be about sports, it could be about anything. And of course, there’s the whole social media angle, too, where now you’re not even just getting that pressure from your teachers and your parents, but from total strangers on the internet, too.
I feel like every kid has, at some point, felt, This is the only thing I’m good at. I can’t stop doing it or I’ll have nothing I’m good at, and how will I ever get anywhere? I’m very much a perfectionist, so I felt like I could personally relate to Vale. Because it’s hard if you think, This is who I am, and this is what makes me me, and for whatever reason you are forced to change that. Like for me, probably my most recent experience with that was when I stopped teaching, because teaching was my entire identity. I was like, Who am I if I’m not a teacher?
You taught middle school?
Yeah, I did. I was a teacher in Puerto Rico, and then I came to the [mainland] United States and was an English language learner [ELL] teacher working with immigrants and refugees. Teaching has definitely helped me understand the range of experiences that are out there. I was able to meet such a wide variety of children.
Speaking of different experiences, Vale has complex feelings about calling her injury a disability. Why did this feel important to include?
I think we’re at the point now where it’s not a shock to find out that someone has a chronic condition, but there’s still a stigma around, like, Does this count as a disability? Am I disabled enough if my symptoms are only X, Y, and Z, versus these symptoms that I see someone else having? That’s a conversation that’s happening with adults that should be happening with kids, too. It’s why, in some of my other books, I have a lot of conversations about mental health. [Today] I see adults talking about all these things, but as a teacher, I never saw the kids talking about them.
I have some chronic stuff going on, so that’s something I was thinking a lot about in my life leading up to this book. When I had the idea for a fencer, it just kind of all fit together.
I love that Vale has a romance! What is it like to write a queer romance in this political climate?
My other two books have really strong boy-girl friendships, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted this book to have romance: a girl crushing on a girl. I think we’re at a place in publishing where we see queer relationships a lot in YA, but not as much in middle grade.
Banning was definitely a concern with this book. Middle grade is extra tricky because of where it’s being marketed. The younger the kids are, the more people protest the books, and middle grade is technically marketed starting at eight years old.
I don’t know if you noticed, but the book’s back description doesn’t mention that there’s a queer romance. That was definitely a choice on the part of my publisher, because I feel—and I think they would agree with me—that a lot of books are banned just based on the description. It could be the sweetest, most G-rated romance ever, as it is in my book, but it would still get banned just because of that description.
Is there anything readers can do to support authors who are in danger of having their books banned?
It’s so tricky, because I want to say that you as an individual can support me just by buying a copy. But the reality is that schools and library systems are the bulk of my book sales. It feels to me like YA gets bought a lot by individuals and also by adults, but middle grade is very much in that school and library market. So, I think, continuing to advocate in your local school districts and in local library districts against book banning is so important.
I’m so appreciative of the teachers and the librarians who push for my books to be available and who have always really championed my work. The teachers and librarians who are doing this work really deserve medals! As individuals, what we can do is support them. Because when people speak up, they never know who else they’re inspiring to speak up, too.
Mathangi Subramanian is a novelist, essayist, and founder of Moon Rabbit Writing Studio.
Interview: Andrea Beatriz Arango, MG Novel-In-Verse Author
9/22/20220 Comments
An Interview
Andrea Beatriz Arango:
Author of IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL
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Welcome, Andrea! Thanks so much for stopping by! I really enjoyed hearing you read from your middle-grade novel-in-verse IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL during your recent book launch. I see voicing audio books in your future!
Haha! Thanks! I do love to bring my characters to life that way.
I could tell. So, what inspired you to write IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL, and why did you choose the novel-in-verse format?
I wanted to write a book that dealt with mental health in the Latinx community, because I think the shame and stigma associated with therapy & meds for kids is a huge problem that the pandemic has made even worse. I wanted to write it in verse because I'm used to working with students reading below grade level, and I wanted them to be able to access the story too.
What did you love about working with your editor, and why do you believe the editorial process helped make your book a stronger one?
I picked my editor because she truly championed my book from the start. I could tell she deeply understood the story I was trying to tell. Additionally, her ideas for making the story better aligned with how I saw the book improving. I also think it's helpful to get other eyes on my writing, because sometimes while I'm writing I'm thinking about things that I don't necessarily put on the page. And so having my editor tell me what she needed more of allowed me to zero in on the sections of my book that needed to be fleshed out.
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Pattern art by Alyssa Bermudez used with permission, alyssabermudezart.com
The editor-author partnership can be a wonderful one that produces wonderful books! While I'm sure you're proud of the starred review your book has received from Kirkus, what type of reviews do you value even more, and why?
I love hearing about actual kids reading the book! Someone posted a review talking about how their kid made notes in the margins because they loved IVELIZ so much and it honestly made my whole day. I wrote the book for middle schoolers and so it's their opinions that matter to me the most.
That's totally understandable! I hear you have another middle-grade novel-in-verse on the way. Please tell us more! What's it about, and how is it similar or different from IVELIZ?
I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say yet, but it's called THE DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND HOME and it's about a Puerto Rican sixth-grade girl who has to go live with her aunt, who she's never really had a relationship with before. It's a quieter book than IVELIZ, but I think it definitely shares themes of family dynamics, friendship, and mental health. It doesn't come out until next fall, but hopefully I'll be able to share a cover come early 2023.
Wow! That sounds like a great read, too! I'm already looking forward to it being released!
Thanks, Dionna! I really enjoyed writing it, and I've enjoyed being here.
Thank YOU for coming by and to share a little bit about your kidlit journey. I won't be surprised if IVELIZ will soon be included on many 2022 best books of the year lists!
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Random House, 2022
PUBLISHERS' BLURB:
Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz’s year. She’s going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school.
Except... is that what happens? Of course not. Because no matter how hard Iveliz tries, sometimes people say things that just make her so mad. And worse, Mimi keeps saying Iveliz’s medicine is unnecessary—even though it helps Iveliz feel less sad. But how do you explain your feelings to others when you’re not even sure what’s going on yourself?
Powerful and compassionate, Andrea Beatriz Arango’s debut with inside art by Alyssa Bermudez, navigates mental health, finding your voice, and discovering that those who really love you will stay by your side.
Andrea, born and raised in Puerto Rico, is a former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience under her belt. She now writes the types of children’s books she wishes her students had more access to. She balances her life in Virginia with trips home to see her family, and eats lots of tostones de pana. More about Andrea HERE.
UPDATE:
Iveliz Explains It All was selected as a 2023 Newbery Honor Award Winner, A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year & a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults! Congrats, Andrea!!!
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Journaling through mental health, family and 7th grade in debut Newbery Honor book
By Julia Dixon Evans / Arts Reporter/Host, The Finest
Contributors: Julianna Domingo / Producer, KPBS Midday Edition
Published November 28, 2023 at 5:31 PM PST
This story was published more than 1 year ago.
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Show transcript
The cover of "Iveliz Explains It All" is shown next to a photo of author Andrea Beatriz Arango.
Penguin Random House / Lily Graciela
The cover of "Iveliz Explains It All" is shown next to a photo of author Andrea Beatriz Arango.
Andrea Beatriz Arango is the author of the KPBS One Book One San Diego selection for teens, "Iveliz Explains It All." The book received a 2023 Newbery Honor Award. It follows a seventh grader, Iveliz, as she tries to navigate her mental health through the poetry she writes in her journal about each day, what she's going through, and her friends and family.
The book begins two years after a traumatic experience, and Iveliz's grief and the problems she continues to face are gradually revealed as the story progresses — but throughout it all, Iveliz is approachable, bright and funny as she learns how to speak her mind.
Arango will be in San Diego to read and discuss the book at 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1 at the Vista Branch Library.
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A virtual event will be livestreamed earlier in the day, from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Register here.
Arango joined KPBS' producer Julia Dixon Evans to discuss the book. The following interview has been lightly edited for length.
So this book is in verse, but it also takes the form of journal entries. This is such an enduring literary tradition, the novel in the form of letters. It made me curious what your relationship with journaling was like when you were younger.
Arango: Yeah. I had a lot of journals. I've always loved to write in any way, shape or form, and I've always been not necessarily bad at communicating, but really bad at confrontation. So journaling was a way where I could kind of get my feelings out with kind of like — I believe — I guess now that I think about it, it was an easy way to, you know, not have to get grounded for saying something I shouldn't have; to, say, my parents or you know, getting into a big argument with friends. So I definitely journaled a lot and then eventually, when I got older I was a Tumblr girl so I blogged online. But yeah, I've always journaled either on paper or digitally, and lately I guess I haven't been journaling as much the past few years, but I think it's because I've been doing so much writing, and in a way it is a little bit like journaling.
I always tell kids when I do school visits that even though my books are fiction, every book has little bits and pieces of whatever I was going through at the time that I wrote it, because it's impossible not to. Everything around you makes you who you are at that moment. And so it'll naturally affect your perspective as you're writing as well. But yeah, always been a journaler for sure.
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We learn that Iveliz is struggling with grief and her own mental health and that of her grandmother. Can you talk a little bit about how you approached covering that difficult ground for middle-grade and teen readers?
Arango: You know, I was writing this book during the height of the pandemic. So I was teaching middle school and then all of a sudden, we were all at home. If you were involved with schools back then, then you would know that no school knew what they were doing when we first closed down. And I was working with English language learners, and so they were particularly lonely — I think because their parents couldn't necessarily communicate with the school — everything was getting sent home virtually or on paper and most of it was in English or even if it was being translated, you know, not every student's parents could read in their native language and not all my students could either, so it was a very difficult time with a very serious lack of communication.
I think that really played a big role in me writing what Iveliz was going through and also just her relationship with her grandmother, because they're both really striving to have a connection with each other but they just kind of keep missing each other, you know, not necessarily knowing how to support each other the best and I think a lot of students were really going through that, the of the 2019-20 school year for sure.
Iveliz is Puerto Rican American. Her mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico — like you were. Can you talk about how your background influenced this book?
Arango: Well, if you read this book, you know it has a lot of Spanish in it. So that's definitely a big part of it. I did grow up in Puerto Rico. My family's all still there. And so when I talk to my family, it's always in Spanish and I really wanted to show that in the book. You'll notice that pretty much all the Spanish in the book is when Iveliz is talking to her mom or her grandmother, versus her friends who she just speaks English — so the language was a big part of it, (and) the food.
Her grandmother talks a lot about Puerto Rico and how hard it was to leave, which I definitely know firsthand. I've been in the States now for eight years and it was very hard to leave, and I think about all the time, you know, 'should I go back or should I stay?' And so that all, I think, plays a part in it, all the while trying to keep in mind that most of my readers obviously didn't grow up the way that I grew up and you know, most of the Puerto Ricans in the U.S. — specifically kids and teens in the U.S. — have been born here and grew up here and are oftentimes second or third generation, and they might know Spanish or they might not. So I was trying to balance kind of infusing it with the culture and the language and the connections that I grew up with, while still keeping in mind that Puerto Rico is not a monolith and the Puerto Rican experience is not a monolith. And so this is very much Iveliz's specific family dynamic, but it might not be everybody's.
More about family … Iveliz's grandmother, her Mimi, just moved in with them from Puerto Rico. Mimi has dementia, and there are generational differences there with the way Iveliz understands mental health and is struggling with her own, and how Mimi understands it. But of course Mimi's also this really big source of comfort for her. Can you talk a little bit about that balance right there?
Arango: Yeah, I think oftentimes when I read children's books; we get a lot of family characters where either the children are really close with their family members and they have like really, really supportive, perfect-on-paper parents or relatives — or it's a total opposite. And I really wanted to try to show that nuance that I think a lot of students are very intimately familiar with, which is being surrounded by adults who really love you and want the best for you, but don't necessarily know how to support you or how to align what you need with what they think you need, which is very tricky to balance always, you know for kids or adults, and so I was really trying to show that I don't think anyone would doubt whether Mimi or Iveliz's mom love her — like, it's very clear that they love her a lot, but they also still hurt her all the time, sometimes not on purpose, sometimes on purpose. You know, it's complicated. Family is complicated.
Second Chances
Why is it that principals
love giving second chances?
Love reminding me they were kids too?
Love acting like they're doing me a favor,
doing my mom a favor,
by sitting me down all serious
and asking what they can do?
Well, guess what.
This is seventh grade now,
and I don't need anyone's help but my own.
I've moved on from everything
that happened,
I've made lists and I've made goals,
and if I'm in the principal's office,
you can 100% bet
that it wasn't my fault.
Who can you trust?
If you ask my teachers,
they might say I'm a liar,
because I always insist
things are not my fault.
And if you ask my mom,
she might say que soy una dramática,
'cause she used to sometimes think
my old panic attacks
were about getting attention
and not an anxious brain response.
But, Journal,
don't listen to them,
because these right here?
They're my true inner thoughts.
And if you can't trust a girl and her poems,
well,
who CAN you trust?
From "Iveliz Explains It All" by Andrea Beatriz Arango
As we heard, and you talked about earlier, the language is so crucial in this book, and I wanted to dig in a little more into how you play with Spanish and English. The Spanish is not immediately translated, but it gives enough context that it's understood — if not right away, then it will be in a line or two. And I think this is a reality for a lot of bilingual families and the children and those in those bilingual spaces. Can you talk about that a little bit, like the expectation you have with how young people of all language levels might understand this book?
Arango: Yeah. Absolutely. I definitely was very intentional with when and how I use the Spanish. Like you said, it can all be figured out by context. Maybe not like every single word, but I always tell people — like trust me — nothing crucial to the story that you absolutely need to understand is getting put in Spanish. So if there's something you're not sure about, I mean a lot of people tell me that they will translate it, you know, just because they're curious and they want to know exactly what it said, but you definitely don't have to.
And I did my best to really have that context there and I think sometimes we don't give kids enough credit. We teach them how to figure things out by context when they're learning to read and they don't know what all the words mean or they can't decode all the words. So I think we can really trust them with other languages too because, like you said, that's the reality of the world.
I constantly read books that have languages that are not Spanish and that I'm not familiar with, and I love being able to get exposed to that, especially when they have audiobooks too. So "Iveliz (Explains It All)" has an audiobook, and it's very nice to listen to the Spanish I think — and actually it has an audiobook all in Spanish as well, of the Spanish translation, which is very exciting. But yeah, I really like to play with the languages and it was definitely a choice not to include a glossary or a direct translation. But I think the kids have got this, you know.
Q: Some of the toughest parts to read in this book were the parts during school with the way some of her classmates treated Iveliz. But also, the friendships that Iveliz could cling to are just really rich and well-developed. What does friendship mean to you in this book? And what did you want your readers to see in those friendships?
Arango: Yeah, I think similarly to how it was really important for me to show that complexity of like family love; I felt the same way about the friendships. To me, friendships are just as important as family relationships — as romantic relationships. And I think especially in middle school, friendships — they can be your whole world, but we don't always know how to be good friends, like being an active listener and being an intentional listener is really hard, especially when you have your own things going on. So I really wanted to show not just how we can sometimes fail at friendships, but how we can then communicate to cross those bridges and repair that damage. So Iveliz in the book is oftentimes not a very good friend to Amir, but you know, he calls her out on it, and they're able to have these conversations that I think we need to see more in media, not just in books, but movies and TV shows. Oftentimes friendship arguments get presented in this very confrontational dramatic way and I think all of us — not just kids, but adults too — need more models of how to have these healthy conversations when things go wrong because things will always go wrong at some point.
This book received a Newbery Honor this year, and that puts Iveliz alongside books like "Charlotte's Web," "Because of Winn Dixie'' and "Brown Girl Dreaming" — and this is your first book. So I'm wondering what that feels like, and does it change anything for you as you think back to what Iveliz meant to you as you wrote the book?
Arango: Yeah, it adds a whole lot of pressure. It is very overwhelming to win an award for your first book. At the same time, I feel very honored and very blessed because this book had a very soft debut, you know. It was my very first book, and we were still kind of going through it with COVID and kids were trying to go back to like a regular school year and all that — school visits were just starting up again. And so, a lot of people didn't know I existed, they didn't know that Iveliz existed, and winning something like the Newbery Honor definitely put me on the radar of a lot of schools and libraries that didn't know who I was before, and that has meant a lot of kids have now gotten access to the book — especially for free, you know through their schools and libraries, that would have never gotten a chance to read it before.
So for that, I think this book will always be just very, very special to me because it made me realize just how hard it is for books to be — I don't know how to explain it, like how before you get into publishing you kind of think like, 'oh your book is out in the world, now people can read it.' But it's very hard for people and especially kids to discover books. And I say especially kids because I write for middle schoolers and for kids in upper elementary school, and kids aren't going online and Googling books that they want to read and then shopping for them with their own credit cards, you know. They really rely on their parents and their teachers and their librarians. So to have something like the Newbery Honor happen really meant that a lot of kids are now reading "Iveliz (Explains It All)" who would have never read it before.
It's also the One Book, One San Diego 2023 selection for teens, and the intention with this program is to bring an entire region together through reading, through these books. What is something that you want the San Diego region to get out of this book?
Arango: You know, "Iveliz Explains It All" is so much about community, and finding your people and being able to communicate your truths and share your truths with those people, whether it's friends or family members people in your schools, you know, she has a lot of different circles kind of in the book. And what I think is really special about this kind of program is that similarly you're getting people to talk about things with each other that they might not have brought up before the conversations that happen in this book — especially about mental health can be so hard to start up sometimes, especially for kids. It's still a little taboo.
You know, every time I do a school visit, kids will come up and tell me, like very secretively like, 'oh, yeah, like I'm in therapy too,' or 'I take medication too,' but they don't necessarily talk to their friends about it or talk to other people openly about it. And so I think the wonderful thing about these kinds of programs is when everyone is reading the same book, it makes it way easier to talk about that book and then the book becomes a bridge to talk about these other things, like mental health that maybe these people wouldn't have had a conversation with each other about.
Amaris Castillo
Andrea Beatriz Arango on Found Family in Something Like Home
November 16, 2023 Books, Author Interviews
Something Like Home opens to a dreaded ride. Laura Rodríguez Colón is in the backseat of her caseworker Janet’s car. They’re headed to Laura’s new (temporary) home. When they reach Titi Silvia’s apartment, Laura stares at a woman she doesn’t recognize nor has ever had a relationship with.
The sixth-grader doesn’t understand why she has a caseworker, or what a caseworker even does. Still, Laura floods Janet with questions. Below are a few:
How long will I be with my aunt?
What will happen to our trailer?
What will happen to the things I don’t pack?
When can I talk to Mom?
When can I talk to Dad?
What does kinship care mean?
Laura wonders if the 911 call she made is what caused her to be separated from her parents. She wonders if this is all her fault.
Another day, while on a walk, Laura finds a dog. The big brown puppy looks sickly, and so she carries the dog all the way to Titi Silvia’s house. She names him Sparrow.
Andrea Beatriz Arango, the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, has brought forth a moving middle grade novel-in-verse about a young girl on a journey to understand what home means, and what makes up a family. Readers witness Laura navigate a strange reality—a new place to rest her head at night, a new school, and a budding new friendship—all without her parents.
After taking in Sparrow, Laura also finds a newfound purpose. She believes that if she trains him to become a therapy dog, then perhaps she’ll be allowed to visit her mom and dad. Perhaps, then, she could move back in with them and their family would be made whole again.
But, of course, it is not that easy.
“I’m a firm believer in that community can look like a lot of different things,” Arango told Latinx in Publishing. “Family can look like a lot of different things.”
Something Like Home was inspired by the author’s time as a foster mom in both her native Puerto Rico and in Virginia, where she most recently lived. Arango said that a lot of children—even those who aren’t in foster care but come from big families—are asked to choose one family member over another, or to take sides in an argument.
“I think it’s really hard as a kid to feel like you have to choose, and you can’t have more than one thing,” Arango said. “I really wanted to explore that in this particular scenario, in a non-traditional home situation, or just in general that idea that you can have more than one home, and you can have more than one family. And loving one of them does not cancel out the other. You don’t have to pledge your loyalty to only one person, or one home.”
It’s something Laura struggles with at first.
“She feels that it’s a betrayal of her parents if she starts growing her bond with her aunt or that, by loving her aunt, she’s loving her parents less,” Arango said. “And that’s definitely not the case.”
Because Laura is 11, her voice feels a bit younger than what readers are used to in the middle grade genre. She struggles through feelings of guilt and a deep longing for her parents—through verse and in letters she writes to her parents. Arango impresses in her crafting of Laura’s letters. They contain hope, desperation, and optimism. They are heart-rendering.
“With Laura, you have someone who doubts herself all the time, and who thinks things are the way they are because she’s making bad choices. And that she doesn’t have the capacity to be in control of her own life and to make correct choices,” Arango said. “I think a lot of kids do feel that way. And part of the reason behind that is because we—as adults and caregivers and teachers—sometimes unintentionally reinforce that belief in kids over and over.”
The presence and memories associated with Laura’s parents looms over the entire book, heightening the stakes for a daughter in yearning. Readers will find themselves wishing they would write her back soon.
Arango covers several themes in her sophomore book with ample tenderness: identity, addiction, the nuances of kinship care, and even the self-blame children exercise when in pain. The author’s writing is both intimate and accessible, as readers are taking on an emotional rollercoaster with Laura as she both learns and unlearns different aspects of the very nature of family.
The author recalled having foster children as students in her classroom when she was a teacher, and the scarcity of what she described as nuanced foster care books. The majority of the books she found painted the parents as evil, and as social services as a rescuer of the child from a horrifying situation.
“Obviously that is the case for some children. We do have abusers in society who did terrible things to their kids,” Arango said. “But the majority of foster care cases in the U.S. are not abuse cases.”
“
The author’s writing is both intimate and accessible, as readers are taking on an emotional rollercoaster with Laura as she both learns and unlearns different aspects of the very nature of family.
Most of the cases, said Arango, are classified as neglect. Reasons that can lead to a child being removed from the home include a family’s financial or housing situation, or parents losing their jobs or having an addiction.
“I wanted to write a book that looked at it in a more nuanced way. Laura loves her parents. Her parents love her,” Arango said. “They’re not bad people. They—just like a lot of people in the U.S.—became addicted to a substance. . . That happens a lot.”
Of note in Something Like Home is Sparrow and how important his role is in Laura’s new life. Arango is a self-described “dog person,” and shared that one of her dogs was the inspiration for the fictional dog. The author said she’s interacted with therapy dogs in different scenarios and wanted to highlight them in part to raise more awareness about them for young readers. The author added that she also wanted her main character to have a project she could focus on.
“During the book, she (Laura) definitely is feeling very lost. And one of the things that makes her feel like she is doing something to help herself and her family is this training-Sparrow-kind-of-project,” Arango said. “It gives her something to work towards and it helps her not feel as helpless because she now has a plan to reunite with her family.”
At the core of Something Like Home is a lesson on found family. Arango said she hopes young readers come away with a greater awareness of foster families and kinship families.
“It’s guaranteed in most schools, there will be at least one kid per classroom who is either in foster care or kinship care, has been at some point, or has a relative who has,” the author said.
This is really common, she added.
“I wanted both for kids who are going through a situation similar to that, to feel understood and listened to and represented,” Arango said. “But also for all the kids who have never encountered it in their lives, to have a little bit more empathy moving forward in the future.”
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Andrea Beatriz Arango is the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and is a former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience. Andrea now writes the types of children’s books she wishes students had more access to. She balances her life in Virginia with trips home to see her family and eat lots of tostones de pana. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her enjoying nature in the nearest forest or body of water.
In conversation with Andrea Beatriz Arango, author of It’s All 0r Nothing, Vale
It’s All or Nothing, Vale is your third novel in verse. What inspired you to use the medium of poetry to tell your stories?
I love telling stories in verse because I think they are a lot more accessible for kids who have low reading stamina or are learning the language. A 250-page novel doesn’t seem nearly as scary when there is so much white space on the page! When it comes to stories like Vale’s, it also helps readers immerse themselves more in an experience that is foreign to them. Pain and feelings are hard to explain to others, but poetry can achieve a lot in just a few words.
Vale is hardworking, determined, and talented. Is she modeled on anyone from your real life?
I am lucky to be surrounded by many people who fit that description, though I think my family sometimes struggles with knowing when to rest. Valentina is a competitive perfectionist—she has a hard time believing things are worth doing if she’s not giving 110 percent. And I think a lot of readers will relate to that. There is more and more pressure on kids every day, and the list of things they need to accomplish in order to be successful keeps getting longer.
Fencing is Vale’s thing. What did you know about the sport before writing this book? Why did you decide to feature fencing instead of soccer, softball, or another mainstream sport?
My sister was a gifted fencer! She tried out a class around age fifteen, and within a year had qualified to be on Puerto Rico’s national youth team. She ended up representing PR in many international competitions before ultimately deciding she didn’t want to pursue it as a career. Still, I would say my knowledge of the sport was pretty superficial. I asked my sister a LOT of questions while writing this book!
Vale struggles to find her new “normal.” What do you hope readers will take away from her journey?
I hope readers will walk away from the story with an example of someone whose world did not end when she had to change course. Sometimes our plans for the future change; that doesn’t mean we stop being who we are. Valentina is more than her fencing talent. And I hope readers are able to remember that if and when they find themselves struggling with school, sports, or anything they have used as an identifier in the past.
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It's All or Nothing, Vale
It's All or Nothing, Vale By Andrea Beatriz Arango
A poignant novel in verse in which, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion. From the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.
All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending—
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.
No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.
After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?
In this moving novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion and discovers that the sum of a person's achievements doesn’t amount to the whole of them.
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Andrea Beatriz Arango
Andrea Beatriz Arango is the author of Newbery Honor Book Iveliz Explains It All and the Pura Belpré Honor Book Something Like Home. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she first became a teacher. She then spent a decade in the United States working in public schools and nonprofits. When she’s not busy writing about middle schoolers and their families, you can find her hoping to spot manatees at the beach. Andrea lives in Puerto Rico with her family and two dogs.
Author Post: Andrea Beatriz Arango
I’ve always loved books that are in conversation with each other. As a kid, and now as an adult, the references that authors would sprinkle throughout their novels seemed like small gifts—side quests I could explore once I was done reading that particular book. Twelve-year-old me didn’t have the gift of Google, but that didn’t stop me from doing my very best to follow the breadcrumb trails some authors left behind. Iveliz Explains It All is written in verse because Iveliz loves poetry. This, combined with the fact that kids nowadays often have their own phones or can easily connect to the internet at school, shaped the references I included for Iveliz’s readers to find.
I don’t remember when I first discovered spoken word poetry, but I was old enough that this discovery happened on YouTube and not in real life. I remember watching, transfixed, wishing that slam poetry nights and competitions existed anywhere close to home. Not so I could perform myself, necessarily, but so I could watch. I was hypnotized by the confidence of these poets and their way with words, enamored with how much more these poems felt like storytelling and not just verse. Discovering this kind of poetry not only shaped me as a writer but completely transformed how I taught poetry. Teenagers who once had groaned at the thought of our poetry unit were now engaged. These poets spoke to them in ways the ones in their textbooks didn’t, and I loved getting to see some of them write their own poems to perform in class.
It would be many more years before I discovered novels-in-verse, but when I finally did, it was like everything I loved about spoken word and novels had merged into an art form I could have never imagined. Here were written poems, storytelling poems, speaking an entire novel without a single paragraph. These books were beautiful, heartfelt, and just begging to be read aloud.
Elizabeth Acevedo was the first Latinx poet I found who did both. Her slam poems about her name and her hair had me in tears. When The Poet X came out a few years later, I knew she was carving a path to something different, though I didn’t yet believe publishing my own work was a dream I could achieve. Later, during the pandemic, I found Elisabet Velasquez on Instagram. She had a book deal by then, and I remember thinking: There are Puerto Ricans out here doing this. Yo puedo hacer esto también. The poem Iveliz’s friend Amir gives her toward the end of the book is from Elisabet’s debut YA novel, When We Make It, because by the time Iveliz and I had reached the end of this story, it felt like we had made it, too.
All this to say that there are so many poets out there sharing their words through various media. The internet has made it so wonderfully easy for people to experience each other’s work. And while I don’t know if every reader will look up the poets I reference in my book, I’d love to imagine teachers and librarians using these references in lessons—showing kids that there are so many different ways to be an artist, to be a writer, and if they want to create poetry, they absolutely can.
Andrea Beatriz Arango
Andrea Beatriz Arango
Andrea Beatriz Arango was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She has an EdS in reading education and works as a public school ESOL teacher by day and as a writer by night. Andrea balances her life in Virginia with trips home to see her family and eat lots of tostones de pana. When she’s not busy, you can always find her enjoying nature in the nearest forest or body of water. Iveliz Explains It All is her debut novel.
Arango, Andrea Beatriz IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL Random House (Children's None) $16.99 9, 13 ISBN: 978-0-593-56397-7
To navigate her school and home lives through depression and PTSD, a 12-year-old Latina girl retreats into her poetry and journal.
Seventh grader Iveliz plans to make this a great year despite recent trauma. Her abuela Mimi's arrival from Puerto Rico means a chance to feel like a family again, filling in the space left by her father's absence. But Mimi's Alzheimer's has progressed since the last time Iveliz saw her, and Iveliz's fraught relationship with her distant, always working Mami doesn't help to keep the peace either. Meanwhile, her friendship with Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, seems to be on the rocks, and Iveliz keeps getting in trouble at school thanks to bullies, an ill-conceived revenge plot, and awkward attempts to forge a new friendship. Going to therapy and managing her medication also eat away at Iveliz even as she tries to find solace in visions of her dad. Full of heartbreak and compassion, Arango's debut crackles with refreshing frankness and wit. The author excels at building Iveliz's voice through each poem, leading to a tale that's quick to read yet hard to put down. The creative use of varied poetic forms supports moments of levity and catharsis. Final art not seen.
Superbly woven; a bold, deep portrayal of a young voice who needs to be heard. (author's note, resources) (Verse novel. 10-14)
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"Arango, Andrea Beatriz: IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A709933112/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=da68808d. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Iveliz Explains It All
by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Middle School Random 272 pp. g
9/22 978-0-593-56397-7 $16.99
Library ed. 978-0-593-56398-4 $19.99
e-book ed. 978-0-593-56399-1 $9.99
"I'm tired of being that girl / who's different / who's special / who went through a 'hard time' / and basically messed up her home." Seventh grader Iveliz writes in her new journal about her goals: trying to stay out of trouble at school; making a new friend; and acclimating to living with her abuelita, Mimi, who, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, has moved from Puerto Rico to be with Iveliz's family. In spite of her efforts, Iveliz still struggles: her mom keeps getting called to the principal's office; a makeover date with a new friend turns complicated; and her idea to grow a garden with Mimi doesn't go as planned (gandules don't grow well in Maryland). She is not sure how to get her life under control, or whether Dr. Turnip and Dr. Carrot, her garden-vegetable "therapists," can actually help. Iveliz's voice is relatable and strong. Her spare journal entries are in English with a fair amount of Spanish naturally integrated into her musings to create an authentic depiction of a Puerto Rican family and a young girl's personal issues. This verse novel (with occasional interspersed art by Alyssa Bermudez) deals convincingly with grief, mental health, and middle-school bullies; twelve-year-old Iveliz's first-person account amplifies the need for finding one's voice and asking for help at any age. An author's note lists mental health resources for young people.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Long, Alicia K. "Iveliz Explains It All." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 98, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2022, p. 77. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A719029147/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=54036a6c. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
* Something like Home
by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Intermediate, Middle School Random 256 pp.
9/23 9780593566183 $17.99
Library ed. 9780593566190 $20.99
e-book ed. 9780593566206 $10.99
Spanish ed. 9781644738696 $14.95
If only life were as straightforward as the Rubik's Cube that Laura loves to solve. When this Virginia-set verse novel begins, the Puerto Rican sixth grader is on her way to a kinship foster-care placement "on the other side of town" with her titi Silvia, whom Laura has never met. Pulled from her admittedly chaotic life with her parents, who are struggling with addiction, Laura copes with the overwhelming changes that a new caregiver, new rules, a new school, and new peers bring, while suffering with extreme feelings of guilt over making the 911 call that resulted in her parents' being placed in rehab. Laura finds purpose in training a dog she rescues near Titi's house to be a therapy animal; her plan is to bring the dog to the rehab facility so she can finally see her parents. Arango's writing is intimate and heartbreaking, tackling such hefty issues as cultural identity, addiction, the pain of displacement and the anxiety it causes, and the adulation and rationalization that a child in pain can offer to adults they love. Arango (Newbery honoree for Iveliz Explains It All, rev. 9/22) accomplishes this with the believable voice of a girl in crisis and by tapping into compassion for all the characters amidst moving scenes of joy and connection.
* indicates a book that the editors believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work. Please visit hbook.com and hornbookguide.com for expanded review coverage, including additional titles and themed booklists.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Toledo, Amanda R. "Something like Home." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 99, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2023, pp. 68+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A763555525/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=40b416c8. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Arango, Andrea Beatriz SOMETHING LIKE HOME Random House (Children's None) $17.99 9, 12 ISBN: 9780593566183
A powerful novel in verse about a girl coping after being ripped from her home.
When 11-year-old Laura Rodríguez Colón calls 911 to save her parents from a possible overdose, authorities remove her from her home and place her into the care of Titi Silvia, her estranged aunt. Laura, who is Puerto Rican, resists "this borrowed life," anxiously awaiting the day her parents will be released from rehab. One day, she rescues a sick, abandoned puppy she names Sparrow, and he helps her feel better about everything. When the social worker informs her that children aren't allowed to visit the rehab center, Laura hatches a plan to train Sparrow to be a therapy dog and get inside that way. But when her parents leave without completing the program, Laura learns her stay with Titi may become permanent. Laura's distress increases when her mother shows up at school only to be sent away, leaving Laura torn between life with her aunt and love for her flawed parents. With the help of caring friends and adults, Laura learns that creating a new home doesn't have to mean discarding the old. The short sections written in accessible free verse create a segmented structure that mirrors Laura's experiences and drives the storyline. The clear narrative arc and strong symbolic system make the novel cohere, and Laura's emotional landscape is realistically contradictory. Arango's writing is a joy to read, combining strong storytelling, compelling characters, and rich language.
Beautifully executed. (author's note) (Verse fiction. 10-14)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Arango, Andrea Beatriz: SOMETHING LIKE HOME." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A758848872/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8be5fa47. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Arango, Andrea Beatriz IT'S ALL OR NOTHING, VALE Random House (Children's None) $17.99 2, 11 ISBN: 9780593810927
After an accident, a talented fencer in Virginia struggles to balance recovery and her dreams of becoming a champion.
Puerto Rican seventh grader Valentina Marí Camacho can't wait to fence again. After she and Papi were in a serious motorbike accident, anticipating fencing again was the only way Vale endured doctors, surgeries, and "the complete rearranging / of [her] life." But her return four months later is far from triumphant. Unpredictable flares of pain make previously effortless moves challenging, and even worse, Cuban American newcomer Myrka Marerro, who's cued lesbian, has taken her place as top fencer. But, Vale explains, fencing is "what keeps meme." If Vale's not the best, who is she? Her parents have always pushed her to win. But now, Mami treats her like she's fragile--though Papi insists she's fine, causing arguments between her parents. Her older brother, Luis Manuel, suggests other hobbies, but Vale and fencing are inseparable. But pain--and Vale's growing crush on Myrka--risk thwarting her plan to beat her rival. Vale's vulnerable, angry free verse narration eschews overused disability storylines, intricately exploring issues including chronic pain, perfectionism, and parental expectations. Vale's ambivalence about identifying as disabled is particularly well expressed. Her relationships with her family are realistically nuanced, and non-Spanish speakers will understand the occasional lines of Spanish dialogue through context. In her acknowledgments, Arango explains that she drew on her and her husband's experiences with chronic pain when writing the story.
Moving and insightful. (author's note)(Verse fiction. 10-13)
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"Arango, Andrea Beatriz: IT'S ALL OR NOTHING, VALE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A817945839/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b40e8894. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
* It's All or Nothing, Vale.
By Andrea Beatriz Arango.
Feb. 2025. 272p. Random, $17.99 (9780593810927). Gr. 5-8.
After a car accident leaves Vale in physical therapy, a lot of pain, and emotional turmoil, the young Latina must decide if it's possible--and reasonable--to return to her life as a competitive fencer. Arango's quick, vibrant verse lunges and parries Vale's story along as she navigates dual parental goals in regards to her recovery, her own chronic pain, and her first crush ... on the new (maybe better than her) fencer on the team, Myrka. This juxtaposed exploration invites the reader into Vale's mind and heart, to feel her emotional and physical pain as well as the confusion they produce. With a lot of fencing terminology skillfully woven throughout, this middle-grade novel in verse feels accessible and emotionally vulnerable, but the sports element will no doubt engage more reluctant readers in addition to lovers of novels in verse. While not quite as emotionally gut wrenching as Arango's other work, this tale of a tween struggling with chronic pain, the question of disability, and a queer awakening is an important addition to library shelves and provides an uplifting addition to Arango's backlist. For fans of Lisa Fipps, Shifa Saltagi Safadi, and Lilliam Rivera, this novel offers an inspiring story to help readers steel themselves to take control of their own choices.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 American Library Association
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Damron, Aryssa. "It's All or Nothing, Vale." Booklist, vol. 121, no. 9-10, Jan. 2025, p. 77. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A829739546/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=21bf9a1c. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.