I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter ~Erika L. Sanchez

Once again, a young adult novel has left me (nearly) speechless. This story takes readers on a heart-wrenching and raw journey with the protagonist, Julia.  By the end of the novel, readers of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter  not only have a greater understanding of Mexican culture, they have also lived, alongside Julia, being a teen, grieving a loss, feeling misunderstood, and questioning their worth. Julia’s frustrations, triumphs, and losses dug at my heart, but I could not put the book down. While Julia is not always the most likeable character, she is real and flawed, and relatable.

Throughout the novel, she struggles to be the Mexican daughter that her parents expect her to be. She is too heavy, too argumentative; and she hates dresses, cooking, and spending too much time with family. Her parents, especially her mother, cannot understand her desire to spend most of her time reading, in museums, or dreaming about college, particularly because her sister, Olga, was the dutiful daughter than any Mexican mother could only dream of.  American and Mexican cultures collide as Julia tries to decide who she is in the world while still loving and honoring her parents, who risked their lives to immigrate to the United States. My most consistent thought as I read this book was: Yes. This story will make so many of my students feel seen and heard.  While it is not an easy read, and though it is definitely very mature, this novel is so, so important.  Reading this book was truly a beautiful and eye-opening experience.

Maturity: 4/4This novel is very mature and contains swear words, a sex scene, multiple descriptions of sexual abuse (though not graphically), drug and alcohol use, and the protagonist attempts to commit suicide and is hospitalized. Though I think recommendations should be made based on an individual student basis, I generally believe this is appropriate for students 13+.

Pages: 340

Lexile: HL730L

Lexile is a score that helps educators and parents match students with an appropriate text. A Lexile score is a measure of both a child’s reading ability and a text difficulty. However, Lexile does not take into account the content of a novel. So, pairing readers with a text is a complex process, and knowledge of a novel’s themes and plot is necessary to make a high-quality recommendation.If you are curious about the grade-level equivalent to Lexile scores, check out the conversion charthere!

♥ Kara & Riley