THE GIRL AND THE ROBOT

Mimi is struggling with the aftermath of the traumatizing deportation of her father when a new friend crosses her path.

Twelve-year-old Mimi, who’s cued Afro-Latine, lives in Brooklyn with her mami and papi, immigrants from the Dominican Republic, until one terrifying night when men in dark uniforms driving white vans take her father away, and her world collapses. Mimi grows isolated and distant from her mom and three best friends. Like her dad, Mimi knew how to fix broken things—“pretty much anything you could think of Mimi could put back together”—everything except her friendships and family. Joining a school robotics competition drives her to grudgingly team up with her old friends, if only to win the prize money to afford a lawyer and save her dad. But everything is thrown into disarray when colorful lights appear in the night sky, and a creature falls to Earth. Mimi must trust others in order to not only repair her new broken robot friend, but also reunite it with its family and mend her own relationships. In the vein of other classic tales of extraterrestrial encounters, this fresh novel puts a contemporary spin on the story of a child who befriends and rescues an alien, highlighting the plight of refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers from both nearby and galaxies far away.

Fractured friendships and families are repaired with help from new friends from far away.