The next stunning novel from Donna Barba Higuera, author of Newbery and Pura Belpré Award-winning The Last Cuentista



This is the story as it was told to me by Leandro the Mighty



For over 400 years, the world has been a barren wasteland. The few humans that survive scrape together an existence in the cruel city of Pocatel—or go it alone in the wilderness beyond, filled with wandering spirits and wyrms. They don’t last long.



13-year-old pickpocket Leandro and his sister Gabi do what they can to forge a life in Pocatel. The city does not take kindly to Cascabeles like them—the descendants of those who worked the San Joaquin Valley for generations.



When Gabi is caught stealing precious fruit from the Pocatelan elite, Leandro takes the fall. But his exile proves more than he ever could have imagined—far from a simple banishment, his consciousness is placed inside an ancient drone and left to fend on its own. But beyond the walls of Pocatel lie other Alebrijes like Leandro who seek for a better world—as well as mutant monsters, wasteland pirates, a hidden oasis, and the truth.



From Donna Barba Higuera comes another novel and imaginative world to astonish us and hold a mirror to our own.