From Pura BelprĂ© Honorâwinning author Adrianna Cuevas comes Mari and the Curse of El Cocodrilo, a new middle grade novel about a young Cuban American girl who must fight to break a curse of bad luck set upon her by El Cocodrilo when she rejects her familyâs traditions.
If Mari Feijoo could, she would turn her familyâs Peak Cubanity down a notch, just enough so that her snooping neighbor and classmate Mykenzye wouldnât have anything to tease her about. Thatâs why this year, thereâs no way that Mariâs joining in on one of the big-gest Feijoo family traditionsâburning the New Yearâs Eve effigy her abuela makes.
Only Mari never suspects that failing to toss her effigy in the fire would bring something much worse than sneering words at school: a curse of bad luck from El Cocodrilo. At first, itâs just possessed violins and grade sabotaging pencils, but once El Cocodrilo learns that he becomes more powerful with each new misery, her luck goes from bad to nightmarish as the curse spreads to her friend Keisha.
Instead of focusing on Mariâs mariachi band tryout and Keishaâs fencing tournament, the pair, along with their friend Juan Carlos, are racing against the clock to break the curse. But when Mari discovers her familyâs gift to call upon their ancestors, she and her friends will have to find a way to work with the unexpected help that arrives from the far corners of Mariâs family tree. Only will it be enough to defeat El Cocodrilo before he makes their last year of elementary school the worst ever and tears their friendship apart?