Sometimes the title of a book is all you need to see in order to decide whether or not you want to read it but this book brought the full package. The Making of Yolanda La Bruja by Lorraine Avila does not disappoint. From the title, to the powerful cover image, I was immediately drawn. The content of this book is also so well written that you are hooked from the start. The first chapter starts us on a journey and keeps us captured until the skillful wrap-up of the story in the final chapter.
As the story opens, the reader is treated to some of the mystical charms of Yolanda’s ancestors and her culture. Have you ever experienced a tarot card reading before? Well, Yolanda’s family lives a life full of tradition that is seeped in this way of life. They have beliefs in the powers that be and tarot cards, visions, and spells are part of their everyday life. This YA book is relevant to today’s issues, giving us a look at what school can be like for teenagers nowadays. Think fire drills versus active shooter drills. Yolanda’s unique abilities can be chalked up to being good at reading people but the storyline shows us that it is so much more than that. Yolanda is a seer of sorts and when a new boy transfers into her school, she gets a strange feeling about him. We join Yolanda on her adventures to try and stop a tragic event befalling her school and community.
Rich in so many traditions, The Making of Yolanda La Bruja gives us a deeper look at Brujeria and how it can be viewed as a religious experience, specifically pertaining to the story, in the Dominican Republic. A young girl living in the Bronx, excited to be turning 16, Yolanda is about to be further introduced to Brujeria. Throughout the story, she is faced with the challenge of trying to show a young boy what is special about her community, hoping that this will keep him from performing a most heinous act that could alter the face of her beloved community.
This book is rich, filled with flavorful words that come together to paint a coming-of-age story that centers tradition, religion, and the reality of being a teenager faced with the possibility of a tragic incident, too familiar to many people and communities across the United States and the world.
Lorraine Avila (she/they) is a storyteller. Lorraine was born and raised in the Bronx, NY and is a first generation Dominican-American. Avila spent a decade as an educator in the K-12 education system. She has a BA from Fordham University in English, an MA in Teaching from New York University, and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. The Making of Yolanda La Bruja is her YA debut.
Angela “Angie” Ybarra is a senior student enrolled in the Nontraditional Degree Program (NDP) at Northeastern Illinois University. She hopes to work as a grant writer to assist local nonprofit organizations that address the issues of gentrification within Chicago's NorthWest side and help them find funding for their work. Angie loves to give her audience the opportunity to formulate their own views by presenting the facts or points of interest with the hope to move her audience into action.
“Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social change.” —Andrew Vachss, Author
