Book Review: Grow Up, Luchy Zapata by Alexandra Alessandri

Publisher’s description

A funny, relatable middle school drama about two Colombian American girls who have always been BFFs—until sixth grade turns everything upside down.

Luchy Zapata is starting middle school, and she’s muy excited. She and her two best friends, Cami and Mateo, will finally be at the same school. Luchy and Mateo will be in art class together, and she and Cami can try out for the same soccer team! As long as they’re all together, Luchy can handle anything.

But Cami has been acting weird ever since she got back from visiting family in Colombia. She’s making new, “cool” friends who just seem mean. And suddenly, everything about Luchy and Mateo is too immature for her.

Luchy is determined to help Cami remember how special their friendship is. They’ve been BFFs their whole lives, and that can’t just disappear in a poof of glitter! But…what if Cami doesn’t even want to be friends anymore?

Amanda’s thoughts

I am always here for messy friendship stories. If you somehow went through middle school without friend drama, without friend breakups, good for you. No, really—good for you! Because that stuff sucks. And it’s super common. And I never see as much of it in middle grade books as I want.

Luchy is super psyched for middle school because she will finally go to the same school as both her best friends, Mateo and Cami. But Cami is changing. She’s into makeup and boys and not appearing childish. She makes lots of little cutting remarks to Luchy and seems to suddenly think she’s better than her. When Cami becomes sudden BFF with a girl at school, Luchy feels completely ditched. She thinks that if she can just remind Cami of how strong and amazing their friendship is, it will all be okay. But that thought goes out the window once a nasty prank is pulled on Luchy, who then retaliates, when it then retaliated upon, etc etc.

The girls make bad choices. They’re mean. They’re petty. They’re in middle school. They’re trying to figure out making new friends (which sometimes only seems possible if you ditch old ones, especially if you’re trying to reinvent yourself) while dealing with pretty significant issues, like changing family configurations and feeling unsure of your place in your world. Luchy grapples a lot with not feeling connected to Colombia, where her family is from. She isn’t great at speaking Spanish and doesn’t understand her parents’ or grandma’s hope that she feel a connection to a place she wasn’t born, a place she’s never even visited. As the school year goes on, she works to feel some attachment to the country, to learn more. She begins to ask her family more about Colombia.

One of the takeaways of the story is that you might not always be BFFs with the same person, but growing and changing doesn’t mean you can’t still be friends or at least friendly to one another. That’s a pretty important reminder for middle schoolers who are seeking their place not just in school but in the world. Things change. People change. It’s okay.

A solid read with wide appeal.

Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9781665935968
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date: 07/23/2024
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

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