Alebrijes 🖋 Donna Barba Higuera

 '"But when you see even the smallest bit of green, know that someone who has left the world before is sending us a bit of the Old-World back, reminding us we are still loved."' 

🐝 Leandro and his sister, Gabi are pickpockets trying their best to get by in the post apocalypse world they live in; the land is barren, water is scarce and big sprouting trees and flowing rivers are but things of stories and fairytales that grow harder and harder to believe every day. Their people, the Cascabels, are treated like slaves in the city of Pocatel that they live in which gives Leandro and Gabi no choice but to find a way to escape. But Leandro gets caught in the process and is  sent to the Centre of Banishment where he is presented with two choices : be trapped in a vault where his mind would be imprisoned or live within a drone of a hummingbird - an alebrije - in which he could travel outside Pocatel and be reunited with his body when he returns. He chooses the latter option which opens up an array of different challenges as he takes off into the air to find the other alebrijes before him who never returned, save the Cascabels from the thinning that is awaiting them and return home safely to his sister before its too late.

📝 A few intriguing details:

• This story takes place in the San Joaquin Valley in California around 400 years into the future. Interestingly enough, the Old-World tech they speak of like the drones (which are mechanical replicas of animals and creatures) are still quite 'new' to our current world.
• The Cascabels or los cascabels in the book are essentially snake people with the word cascabel meaning rattlesnake. The tale incorporates important aspects of Mexican culture and quite a bit of spanish, the language the cascabels speak. The songs they sing and their dance all give the story a rather unique feel.