LUPE LOPEZ

Miniature rock star Lupe Lopez takes on her next big battle—reading!

Start a band in kindergarten? Done that! Now it’s the first day of first grade at Hector P. Garcia Elementary School, and our protagonist, whom readers may remember from Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules! (2022), is ready. Her goal for the year? Become a Reading Rock Star. With her pencil drumsticks in hand and pals beside her, Lupe swaggers into class prepared to read. Her first attempt at reading in class…doesn’t go too well. Worse yet, Victor Valdez (who’s totally in Group B and not Group A for Awesome like Lupe) seizes every opportunity to embarrass Lupe. It sure seems like “the worst day a first-grader ever had at Hector P. Garcia Elementary.” The following day, Ms. Moreno shares a sweet secret with a crestfallen Lupe: “Reading is like music.” Aha! Before long, Lupe bangs out to the beat of reading, one step closer to her rock star dream. A delightful romp, Lupe’s latest adventure leaps off the page with a “¡BOOM-TICA-BAM!” The authors bolster Lupe’s infectious sass even further, serving up the humorous melodrama that boosts her eventual comeback song. Hector P. Garcia Elementary remains a community of primarily brown-skinned, Latine-cued students and teachers, with a few words in Spanish sprinkled throughout. The artwork favors bold blues, lush purples, and creamy pinks, veering from solid swaths to fizzy bursts as Lupe ascends from reluctant reader to Reading Rock Star. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A winning primer on how to rock reading.