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A review by hazelalaska
Milagros: Girl from Away by Meg Medina
4.0
The way I would describe this book is charming. I loved the setting of the island of Las Brisas, and I sort of wish we saw more of it because only the first part of the book takes place there.
I grabbed this book when I was working on the discard cart at the library where I worked. The other book I picked out from there didn’t turn out to be that great, and I was expecting to be unhauling this one as well. It really surprised me that I liked it so much, so this one I will be keeping. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was very compelling and the writing was great.
When I first read the synopsis, I was reminded of Island of the Blue Dolphins mixed with Goddess of Yesterday, two books I really love. I had high hopes going into this, and it definitely met them. As I was reading I was reminded of other books as well, such as Pictures of Hollis Woods and Princess Academy, likely beause the book is about a strong young girl trying to figure out her place in the world.
The story is about Milagros, a young latina girl living on a small island in the Caribbean. It’s not fantasy but rather magical realism, including fantastical elements within the everyday world. Magical realism, as I learned, is primarily a South American /latino tradition, so I was happy to see it here.
Spoilers!
I definitely liked the setting of Las Brisas and I wish we got more of it. I felt like the whole part where she ends up in Holly Pointe could have been shortened to allow the Las Brisas part to be longer. The book took a darker turn than I thought with the attack of the Rubians. I liked the part where Milagros is in the tree and she looks down and sees Dr. Lopez and Senorita Alma laying there dead underneath her. The sight really hit home because we knew Milagros really liked Senorita Alma and that she and the doctor were a week away from getting married. I do think that because this is middle grade the story didn’t dwell that much on the death part especially once Milagros was at Holly Pointe. I think that if this were a YA novel it could have dwelled more on the fact that everyone Milagros once knew is likely dead, including Eugenia, whom she seemed to have a running feud with. I think it could have pushed this a bit more in the current form, but if this were YA it would have been grittier.
Speaking of the Rubians, there is a conflict mentioned with them and the fact that Las Brisas has so much while they have so little, but it wasn’t really developed. It seemed to be given as the motive for them attacking and killing everyone, but it was only mentioned once and it came from Rosa, not the Rubians themselves. One Rubian in particular that I wanted to talk about is Delfin. I honestly thought he would play a bigger part in the story somehow, especially because he is actually given a name. I expected him to pop up again later in the story somehow even after Milagros leaves Las Brisas but we never see him again after that.
I grabbed this book when I was working on the discard cart at the library where I worked. The other book I picked out from there didn’t turn out to be that great, and I was expecting to be unhauling this one as well. It really surprised me that I liked it so much, so this one I will be keeping. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was very compelling and the writing was great.
When I first read the synopsis, I was reminded of Island of the Blue Dolphins mixed with Goddess of Yesterday, two books I really love. I had high hopes going into this, and it definitely met them. As I was reading I was reminded of other books as well, such as Pictures of Hollis Woods and Princess Academy, likely beause the book is about a strong young girl trying to figure out her place in the world.
The story is about Milagros, a young latina girl living on a small island in the Caribbean. It’s not fantasy but rather magical realism, including fantastical elements within the everyday world. Magical realism, as I learned, is primarily a South American /latino tradition, so I was happy to see it here.
Spoilers!
I definitely liked the setting of Las Brisas and I wish we got more of it. I felt like the whole part where she ends up in Holly Pointe could have been shortened to allow the Las Brisas part to be longer. The book took a darker turn than I thought with the attack of the Rubians. I liked the part where Milagros is in the tree and she looks down and sees Dr. Lopez and Senorita Alma laying there dead underneath her. The sight really hit home because we knew Milagros really liked Senorita Alma and that she and the doctor were a week away from getting married. I do think that because this is middle grade the story didn’t dwell that much on the death part especially once Milagros was at Holly Pointe. I think that if this were a YA novel it could have dwelled more on the fact that everyone Milagros once knew is likely dead, including Eugenia, whom she seemed to have a running feud with. I think it could have pushed this a bit more in the current form, but if this were YA it would have been grittier.
Speaking of the Rubians, there is a conflict mentioned with them and the fact that Las Brisas has so much while they have so little, but it wasn’t really developed. It seemed to be given as the motive for them attacking and killing everyone, but it was only mentioned once and it came from Rosa, not the Rubians themselves. One Rubian in particular that I wanted to talk about is Delfin. I honestly thought he would play a bigger part in the story somehow, especially because he is actually given a name. I expected him to pop up again later in the story somehow even after Milagros leaves Las Brisas but we never see him again after that.