VALENTINA SALAZAR IS NOT A MONSTER HUNTER

Three siblings go on a road trip to find a mythical creature.

Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Valentina Alexander Salazar is the youngest sibling in a family that used to be monster protectors, rescuing creatures who cross over from another dimension and sending them back before they are killed by monster hunters. But since Val’s father’s untimely death during a mission gone wrong, her mother has taken the family off the road and settled into a more normal (and in Val’s honest opinion, dull) life. While her older siblings seem to be fully adapted to their new reality, Val struggles to fit in and secretly continues to track magical creatures. When the egg of a mythical being appears on her radar, she manages to convince her older siblings Rome and Lola to join her in finding and protecting it (deep inside hoping she can convince them to carry on with the family’s mission). This entertaining adventure novel is full of surprising twists and features a nice blend of science-fiction and fantasy worldbuilding. Ostensibly a story about monsters and how to deal with them, at its heart is the close-knit Salazar family, whose bonds are fraying at the edges of their shared grief, and their youngest child, who helps them with her fierce, earnest advocacy to remember who they truly are. The Salazars are originally from Ecuador, and most of the cast is brown-skinned.

Fun and heartwarming.