HYPED & TRENDY – AWARD WINNING – “THE LAST CUENTISTA” THE POWER OF STORIES & CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE

February 11, 2022 Mar

Today. February 11, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, probably one of the most special observance days for me, since I’m an engineer and science enthusiast!

And, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than with a VERY special “Hyped & Trendy” post about a book that certainly deserves all the hype: “The Last Cuentista”!

No wonder “The Last Cuentista” won TWO American Library Association’s 2022 Youth Media Awards: The “John Newbery Medal” for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature and the “Pura Belpré Children’s Author Award”!

“The Last Cuentista” is absolutely outstanding and, right now, THE BEST Sci-Fi book I’ve ever read! It is also THE BOOK that better embodies everything BOOKIVERSE is about: how we are all made of stardust and stories.

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YOUNG ADULT SCI-FI There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

This book is about how our identity is intimately related to our memories and the stories of our lives. If you had to explain to an alien civilization light-years away and centuries in the future what “Earth” and “Humankind” means, what would you say?

The Collective, like many futuristic civilizations in Sci-Fi stories, doesn’t care for humankind’s imperfections. They want an “utopia” where everything is orderly, perfect and predictable.

So, when the Collective erases everyone’s memories to erase their “imperfections”, but Petra’s, Petra is like the The Voyager Golden Records, carrying the only memories left to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth to others. It is up to Petra to show the Collective the value of humankind.

Petra has to go back to her memories on Earth, her traditions and specially her grandma’s teachings to find the strength and wisdom to face this challenge. So, there is plenty of backstories with an “alternative timelines” type of narrative, between Petra’s childhood on Earth and centuries in the future when she is awaken from suspended animation and has arrived to the new planet.

And this is a wonderful interstellar travel, where all the science to sustain human life in the starship for centuries is impeccably described: suspended animation, water treatment, farms, food, brain/AI interface, genetic modification… Everything! And so is the new planet. The imagery of the extraterrestrial flora and fauna is just marvelous!

Then, there is the fact the main characters are Hispanic, and even though their culture is an important part of the story, the story not ABOUT Hispanic culture but about all of us humans.

Definitely my favorite book right now!