Shine on, Luz Veliz by Rebecca Balcarcel

Ever since Luz shattered her knee playing soccer, she feels like she no longer fits anywhere. Her dad doesn't seem proud of, or even interested in, her anymore, she struggles to connect to her "friends" whom she only knew through soccer, and she doesn't know how she's going to get through the last few months of school.

Things start looking up when she connects with her elderly next-door neighbor, Mr. Mac, who convinces her to try some coding and she's cautiously finding her footing - and hoping to regain her parents' lost approval - when even more changes are dumped on her. It turns out her father has an older daughter he never knew about, back in his home country of Guatemala. Her mother has just died and he's taking custody of her, which means that Luz has suddenly gotten a stepsister who doesn't speak English, will be sharing her room, her parents, and at first glance seems to be everything Luz is not, right down to playing soccer.

After initial arguments and bad behavior on Luz's part, the two settle into something of a relationship with the help of Google translate and Solana's own sweet nature, but it's an uneasy truce and Luz constantly struggles to balance her sympathy with Solana's traumatic background and challenges with her more outgoing and friendly personality, that seems to make it easy for her to do all the things Luz struggles with, from bonding with her parents to being popular at school. As she struggles to mature, deal with her unexpected relationship, and meet an ambitious coding goal, she's thrown even more off-balance by Mr. Mac's unexpected illness. It will take many missteps and miscommunications before the two girls are able to truly become sisters and Luz finds her place moving forward.

There's a lot going on in this book, and some things did feel as though they were too quickly resolved, like Solana's immigration journey, but Balcarcel does an amazing job of making Luz a sympathetic main character. Even when readers, and the adults in her own life, are thinking she's a spoiled brat for her behavior, it's still understandable and even Luz herself can see the different perspectives even when she can't control her own anger and attitudes. She matures throughout the story and Solana, although more of a secondary character, is thoughtfully drawn and despite her quick adaptation in traumatic circumstances, still shines through as a real character.

I'm limiting the number of realistic fiction titles I purchase, especially the longer and more serious ones, as there just isn't a big audience for them, but I would have loved to add this one except for one tiny, okay huge, problem. The cover. That is an AWFUL cover. Luz is a former soccer player, not one of the "cool" kids, but on the outskirts and doing all she can to fit in. One of the things she does at first is give Solana a list of things she should do to fit in and not embarrass her at school. Her knee has been repaired to the point where she can walk on it, but it's still unsteady and she has to be careful. So why on earth did they put her on the cover in overalls that make her look about 10 and with her hip cocked to the side? Another thing that she specifically mentions is that her hair is short and thin, cut in a "short bob" and she envies Solana's thick, wide hair. Luz's hair on the cover is a wide, shoulder-length sweep. Just, no. I can't sell this cover. I might be able to get readers if I pull this for class book clubs, but even that's doubtful. Hopefully a paperback with a better cover will be released in the future.

Verdict: If it weren't for the cover, I'd expend precious budget dollars on this, but I just can't justify it when I am sure that even my less picky kids will be reluctant to pick this up. A great book with a dismal cover.

ISBN: 9781797209678; Published May 2022 by Chronicle; Borrowed from another library in my consortium