Showing results by narrator "Kyla Garcia" in All Categories

Life on Starland is anything but normal these days. The Star Darlings continue to experience mysterious phenomena while trying to focus on their studies and maintain their cover.Star athlete Astra is chosen for the next Wish Mission. Her overconfident nature leads her to quick conclusions about her Wisher’s true wish. Can Astra put aside her own interests and assumptions and help Emma before time runs out?

Mysterious things continue to happen on Starland every day, as the girls wait to see who will go on the next Wish Mission. Piper has a dream that she will be the one, and indeed she is. Piper has a lot to learn when she finds herself working at a diner. Confident that she's identified her Wisher's wish, Piper enjoys her time on Wishworld. But as her Countdown Clock ticks away, can she dismiss her earlier assumptions and discover the true wish?

Gemma talks too much and has no follow-through. She must learn how to listen to others and finish what she starts while remaining curious and clever. Gemma leaves for the final mission in the dead of night, not realizing that her Wisher made a bad wish, which, if granted, could tip the balance of power forever. The other Star Darlings realize that Gemma is about to grant a bad wish, but without a shooting star in sight, they have no way of getting down to Wishworld.

Starf! The day Cassie has been dreading since she first arrived at Starling Academy is here. She has been chosen to make the journey to Wishworld for the next Wish Mission. Lady Stella, the headmistress, assures her she's going to do a starmendous job. Cassie is so sensitive and perceptive she'll be a natural! But her mission is even harder than she feared. Everything just seems all wrong. And there's no help in sight. Could Cassie be the first Star Darling who simply can't make her Wisher's wish come true?

There are lots of strange things going on at Starling Academy these days: Leona is devastated about her Wish Pendant failure. Ophelia, the newest Star Darling, is completely clueless. Vega's roommate, Piper, is getting on her last nerve. And Scarlet? Who knows? She's nowhere to be found! So when by-the-book Vega gets sent to Wishworld on the next mission, she finds herself very distracted. Why is her Wisher so secretive? Vega needs to solve this puzzle fast.

Scarlet has been keeping to herself. But she is convinced that her removal from the Star Darlings was a terrible mistake. With Vega's help she starts an investigation. Meanwhile, Ophelia is chosen to go on a Wishworld mission, for which she is hopelessly unprepared. Will Scarlet be the one to rescue Ophelia and the mission?

As more and more disturbing things happen on Starland, the Star Darlings gather each morning to try to unravel clues to what's wrong. One unimaginable theory is that Lady Stella herself is behind all the trouble. In the meantime, Tessa is selected to travel to Wishworld where she finds herself in a perfect spot for her—an animal shelter. When a terrible storm occurs, Tessa and her Wisher Lizzie must work together to take care of the helpless animals in the shelter, all while Tessa tries to discover Lizzie's real wish and help grant it before time runs out.

Welcome to Starling Academy. Twelve very special students have been selected from this year's class to reclaim the wish energy that powers their beloved planet, Starland. The Star Darlings, as they are known, take classes where they learn how to grant the wishes made on birthday candles, shooting stars, dandelions, wishbones, and coins tossed into fountains, just to name a few. Their top-secret mission will take them to Wishworld (known in some places as Earth).

Clover is way too rigid and often plays it safe. She must learn to be more flexible and spontaneous and take more risks. Clover's Wishworld mission involved a girl who is an only child whose parents completely baby her. Clover tries some very subtle, safe maneuvers to prove that the girl is ready for some independence, but needs to make a bold move to help the girl's parents realize their little girl isn't a toddler anymore.

Charming Libby is a people pleaser who is slow at making decisions. She has to learn how to say no, stand up for herself, and feel more confident about her choices. All of the Star Darling roommates have received beautiful bouquets of sparkly flowers welcoming them to Star Academy. The band tryouts begin and many different girls show up to audition. Meanwhile, the Star Darlings are dealing with their personal conflicts and issues.

Leona is very focused on her studies and is especially busy as the lead vocalist in the Star Darlings band. Star-Zaps start buzzing, and the girls know it’s probably time for one of them to head to Wishworld. It’s Leona’s turn, and she’s bursting with excitement. She can’t wait to get there and become a successful Wish-Granter. But she’ll have to challenge herself to put her own desires aside and truly understand what her Wisher needs - before her Countdown Clock runs out of time.

Cat, Magda, Gabi, and Luz have helped each other up the ladder with unshakable encouragement - and raw honesty - since forever. But lately, trouble is throwing everything these formidable women thought they knew into doubt. Now all four women will have to face the truths that make them vulnerable and the failings that give them strength to discover who they really are - and what real happiness means.

Who ever said being nice would get you to the top? Certainly not Alexandra Miles. She isn't nice, but she's more than skilled at playing the part. She floats through the halls of Spencer High, effortlessly orchestrating the actions of everyone around her, making people bend to her whim without even noticing they're doing it. She is the queen of Spencer High - and it's time to make it official.

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn't want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, many, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was 25. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it's important to wait until you're married to give it up.

These eight short stories and novella travel from Panama’s dusty city streets to its humid beaches to create an affecting portrait of a country in transition. They illustrate family bonds and generational conflicts, youthful infatuation and genuine passion. Tender, ambitious, bold, and unflinching, they reveal a fresh, exciting, and lavishly talented voice in American literature.

On the morning of July 1, 1800, a surveyor and mapmaker named Cayetano Diaz opened the window of his study in Guatemala City to find a horrific sight: a pair of severed breasts. Offering a meticulously researched and evocative account of the quest to find the perpetrator and understand the motives behind such a brutal act, this volume pinpoints the sensational crime as a watershed moment in Guatemalan history that radically changed the nature of justice and the established social order.

In her striking second collection, Natalie Scenters-Zapico sets her unflinching gaze once again on the borders of things. Lima :: Limon illuminates both the sweet and the sour of the immigrant experience, of life as a woman in the US and Mexico, and of the politics of the present day. Her lyrical poems focus on the often-tested resilience of women. Scenters-Zapico writes heartbreakingly about domestic violence and its toxic duality of macho versus hembra, of masculinity versus femininity, and throws into harsh relief the all-too-normalized pain that women endure.

Seventh grader Estefania "Stef" Soto is itching to shake off the onion-and-cilantro embrace of Tia Perla, her family's taco truck. She wants nothing more than for her dad to get a normal job and for Tia Perla to be put out to pasture. It's no fun being known as the "Taco Queen" at school. But just when new city regulations are proposed, and her family's livelihood is threatened, she will have to become the truck's unlikely champion.

Dreamers and their allies, those who care about immigration justice, and anyone interested in the experience of Mexicans in the US will respond to these stories of Mexican immigrants (some documented, some not) illuminating their complex lives. Regardless of status, many are subjected to rights violations, inequality, and violence - all of which existed well before the Trump administration - and have profound feelings of being unwanted in the country they call home.

When Odilia and her four sisters find a dead body in the swimming hole, they embark on a hero's journey to return the dead man to his family in Mexico. But returning home to Texas turns into an odyssey that would rival Homer's original tale. With the supernatural aid of ghostly La Llorona via a magical earring, Odilia and her little sisters travel a road of tribulation to their long-lost grandmother's house.