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Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything
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Published:
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 2020
Accelerated Reader:
IL: UG - BL: 3.8 - AR Pts: 10
Lexile measure:
HL: High-Low 570L
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
"In a world where we are so often dividing ourselves into us and them, this book feels like a kind of magic, celebrating all beliefs, ethnicities, and unknowns." —The New York Times Book Review

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a Mexican American teen who discovers profound connections between immigration, folklore, and alien life.
It's been three years since ICE raids and phone calls from Mexico and an ill-fated walk across the Sonoran. Three years since Sia Martinez's mom disappeared. Sia wants to move on, but it's hard in her tiny Arizona town where people refer to her mom's deportation as "an unfortunate incident."

Sia knows that her mom must be dead, but every new moon Sia drives into the desert and lights San Anthony and la Guadalupe candles to guide her mom home.

Then one night, under a million stars, Sia's life and the world as we know it cracks wide open. Because a blue-lit spacecraft crashes in front of Sia's car...and it's carrying her mom, who's very much alive.

As Sia races to save her mom from armed-quite-possibly-alien soldiers, she uncovers secrets as profound as they are dangerous in this stunning and inventive exploration of first love, family, immigration, and our vast, limitless universe.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
08/11/2020
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781534448650
ASIN:
B07Z44G2W1
Accelerated Reader:
UG
Level 3.8, 10 Points
Lexile code:
HL: High-Low
Lexile measure:
570
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Raquel Vasquez Gilliland. (2020). Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Raquel Vasquez Gilliland. 2020. Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Raquel Vasquez Gilliland. Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
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Shared Digital Collection11
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Grouped Work ID:
f7a831b1-12a4-57c8-5e37-df3d471eb5fb
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Aug 05, 2020 14:46:13
Date Updated:
Aug 05, 2020 14:46:13
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 21, 2024 14:46:21
Last Metadata Change:
Nov 10, 2023 15:43:08
Last Availability Check:
Apr 21, 2024 14:46:25
Last Availability Change:
May 12, 2023 05:59:25
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Apr 24, 2024 02:13:21

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      • bioText: Raquel Vasquez Gilliland is a Mexican American poet, novelist, and painter. She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 2017. She's most inspired by fog and seeds and the lineages of all things. When not writing, Raquel tells stories to her plants and they tell her stories back. She lives in Tennessee with her beloved family and mountains. Raquel has published two books of poetry. She's the author of Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything and How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe.
      • name: Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
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title
Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything
fullDescription
"In a world where we are so often dividing ourselves into us and them, this book feels like a kind of magic, celebrating all beliefs, ethnicities, and unknowns." —The New York Times Book Review

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a Mexican American teen who discovers profound connections between immigration, folklore, and alien life.
It's been three years since ICE raids and phone calls from Mexico and an ill-fated walk across the Sonoran. Three years since Sia Martinez's mom disappeared. Sia wants to move on, but it's hard in her tiny Arizona town where people refer to her mom's deportation as "an unfortunate incident."

Sia knows that her mom must be dead, but every new moon Sia drives into the desert and lights San Anthony and la Guadalupe candles to guide her mom home.

Then one night, under a million stars, Sia's life and the world as we know it cracks wide open. Because a blue-lit spacecraft crashes in front of Sia's car...and it's carrying her mom, who's very much alive.

As Sia races to save her mom from armed-quite-possibly-alien soldiers, she uncovers secrets as profound as they are dangerous in this stunning and inventive exploration of first love, family, immigration, and our vast, limitless universe.
gradeLevels
      • value: Grade 2
      • value: Grade 3
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        Starred review from June 15, 2020
        Sia's mother was deported three years ago by the town sheriff; she disappeared after trying to make her way back across the Sonoran Desert to her family. Grieving Sia is plagued daily by the sheriff's hateful son, but the Mexican American teen is bolstered by her Haitian American, questioning best friend, Rose; her loving park ranger father, who has a Ph.D. in biology; and the spirit of her late grandmother, who continues to communicate with and guide her. She falls for a mysterious, poetry-loving white boy, and, together, they spot a spacecraft bearing Sia's mother. What follows is an electrifying, high-stakes adventure filled with shady government agencies and conspiracy theories come to life. Vasquez Gilliland adeptly balances first love, Mexican American cosmology and Catholicism, X-Files-level intrigue, and undocumented immigration. She doesn't shy away from frank explorations of trauma; interrogation of whiteness; and sex-positive, swoon-inducing makeout sessions that center a young woman's perspective. The poetic prose elevates the story into a magical triumph. Sia is a vulnerable, sympathetic protagonist who, despite a past traumatic sexual experience, the deportation of her mother, and the constant barrage of egregious micro- and macroaggressions, finds hope in her relationships, culture, and connection to her ancestors. Spirituality is woven into everything Sia does and will resonate with many readers. The whip-smart humor lends the novel a breeziness that keeps the narrative lighthearted in between the truly hair-raising moments. Luminous, genre-bending, and out of this world. (Science fiction/contemporary. 14-adult)

        COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from June 29, 2020
        Every new moon, Artemisia “Sia” Martinez drives into the desert to light candles for her mother, who went missing after being deported three years ago by a racist sheriff. The 17-year-old’s park ranger father, Haitian American best friend, and late abuela’s spirit are lifelines in her small, predominantly white Arizona town. After a new boy arrives at her school, a series of strange events slowly unfolds alongside a sweet, sex-positive romance. Blue lights appear in the night sky, a silver-haired woman shows up in the town diner, and Sia’s very-much-alive mother crash-lands before her in a spaceship. Sia must learn how to protect herself and her loved ones within a hostile system, from the likes of secret government agents and a bigoted gas station attendant. Gilliland, making her YA debut, uses lyrical prose to weave between contemporary themes of grief, sexual assault, and racial trauma; magical realism elements grounded in Mexican American culture; and a sci-fi adventure based on real issues surrounding government control over marginalized, undocumented bodies. Despite its leisurely pace, this is a genre-defyingread that is certain to keep readers engaged. Ages 12–up. Agent: Elizabeth Bewley, Sterling Lord Literistic.

      • premium: True
      • source: School Library Journal
      • content:

        August 1, 2020

        Gr 9 Up-Sia and her father, a park ranger, live alone in the Arizona desert mourning the disappearance of Sia's mother after she was deported to Mexico, escaped, and attempted to walk across the Sonoran Desert to return home. Years have passed and while most people believe Sia's mother has died, she still makes a monthly trek out to the desert during the new moon to perform a candlelit ritual she hopes will guide her mother home. Sia encounters new student Noah during one of her desert rituals and though she is initially bothered by his intrusion in her sacred space, she soon discovers an undeniable attraction to him, especially when the duo is paired up to work on a school assignment. This new relationship wreaks havoc on Sia's friendship with Rose, who senses that Noah is harboring a secret. When Sia and Noah witness an unidentified flying object crash in the desert, they are shocked to see Sia's mother emerge from the wreckage. Though her homecoming is joyous, it is also cause for concern as Sia's mother is no longer entirely human. Debut author Gilliland uses lush descriptions of setting and desert imagery paired with lively dialogue to craft a story that blends science fiction with Mexican folklore, all within a contemporary young adult novel that explores grief, friendship, immigration, consent, and the powerful bond between mother and daughter. VERDICT The first book in what promises to be a hot new series, this is a highly recommended purchase for most collections.-Samantha Lumetta, P.L. of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

        Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        August 1, 2020
        Grades 9-12 In her debut novel, poet Gilliland tells a totally genre-bent story about a mother crash-landing an alien spacecraft in the desert in a desperate attempt to reunite with her daughter. For about the first half of the book, Sia is a meditative analysis of the life of a Latinx teenager whose mother was deported by ICE and then lost to the desert, who has PTSD from sexual assault, and who lives in a town where she deals with racism on the regular. But then she finds her mother in a spacecraft and the story expands even more, with tales of abducted immigrants being used for a government-sponsored alien technology program. It's an unexpected, wild ride, combining sf with Latinx mysticism, and, at first, the mix is a bit jarring. But the memorable story, told in short, episodic chapters, features a diverse cast of well-rounded characters with plenty of depth. Amid the surprising plot twists is a thoughtful exploration of humanity, emphasizing that, though no one is perfect, no one is beyond redemption, either.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

      • premium: True
      • source: The Horn Book
      • content:

        January 1, 2021
        Two years ago, seventeen-year-old Sia Martinez's mother perished in the Sonoran Desert, attempting to return home to (fictional) Caraway, Arizona, after being cruelly deported to Mexico. Sia's loving father and her loyal best friend, Rose, help support her through grief, even as the sadistic sheriff's son torments her at school (to his detriment; Sia is no slouch in the self-defense department). When a handsome new guy shows up and starts flirting, Sia is cautiously intrigued. Rose is suspicious (it has to do with the sheriff), but she's distracted by her own love interest, causing jealous Sia to ignore the warning signs. The first quarter of the book is realistic and engaging contemporary YA -- and then Something Happens, and we're launched into sci-fi. Very short chapters -- there are 224 of them -- keep the pace snappy, and a cliffhanger ending, plus deliberate loose ends, point to more adventures to come. There's a content warning at the start ("Sexual Assault, PTSD, Physical Abuse, Parental Death, Racist Violence"), and those issues are addressed head-on. Through Sia's wry first-person narration, however, the tone remains mostly light: "Aliens, government conspiracies, secret experiments. That's all unbelievable enough as it is. No need to add meddling dead abuelas to the mix." Elissa Gershowitz

        (Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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shortDescription
"In a world where we are so often dividing ourselves into us and them, this book feels like a kind of magic, celebrating all beliefs, ethnicities, and unknowns." —The New York Times Book Review

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a Mexican American teen who discovers profound connections between immigration, folklore, and alien life.
It's been three years since ICE raids and phone calls from Mexico and an ill-fated walk across the Sonoran. Three years since Sia Martinez's mom disappeared. Sia wants to move on, but it's hard in her tiny Arizona town where people refer to her mom's deportation as "an unfortunate incident."

Sia knows that her mom must be dead, but every new moon Sia drives into the desert and lights San Anthony and la Guadalupe candles to guide her mom home.

Then one night, under a million stars,...
sortTitle
Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything
lexileScore
570
crossRefId
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publisher
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
atos
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bisacCodes
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      • code: YAF056010
      • description: Young Adult Fiction / Science Fiction / Alien Contact