City Girls
Winner of the American Bookseller Association Indies Introduce Top Ten!
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Readers of Lucky Broken Girl and The House on Mango Street, will love this story of finding sanctuary with friends who understand the enormous changes life can throw you when you're 11.
What Elisa, Lucia, and Alice see–and judge–of each other from the outside is drastically different from how each girl feels inside. They attend the same classes in the same New York City middle school, but no one knows that Elisa is trying to navigate the bewildering asylum process having just arrived from El Salvador; or that Lucia, who also speaks Spanish and brims with self-confidence, is caught in the middle of her parents’ heartbreaking divorce; or that Alice, who appears to be a rebel in combat boots, carries the burden of her mother’s progressing cancer.
Narrated by each girl in alternating chapters, City Girls captures the vulnerability of being a middle schooler and the relief and joy of finding friendship where you least expect it.
Praise for City Girls...
A beautiful story that reaches deep into the lives of girls coming of age today as they confront loss and fear and sorrow while still trying to be young and free. How lucky we all are that Loretta Lopez has chosen to share her psychological understanding through such evocative fiction. She knows how to heal with words, and offers hope and love and kindness that wraps around our corazónes.
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—Ruth Behar, author of Lucky Broken Girl and Letters from Cuba
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A marvelous read, wonderfully intertwined with tragedy and hope. Loretta Lopez has written a compelling and honest account of what many young people go through and the friendships that get them through those trying times.
— Ernesto Cisneros, author of Efrén Divided
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Warning: don’t read this in public. You’ll find yourself crying profusely, cursing, and ready to go to war for the girls in this story. City Girls is a very honest and powerful reminder that adults aren’t the only ones who experience tribulation, and that each child has their own story to tell. I am excited to see it in schools, libraries, and indie bookstores!
—Maryan Liban, Cover to Cover Books for Young Readers, Columbus, OH
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A smart and thoughtful story about the challenges of growing up, and the ways we see ourselves and each other. The three girls, Elisa, Lucia, and Alice, all feel so real in their hopes, fears, and struggles. A very moving debut!
—Ann Branson, Beach Books, Seaside, OR
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