In this magical middle grade adventure by Cindy L. Rodriguez, a Guatemalan American girl fights to stop her cursed worry dolls before they blanket her friends and neighbors in anxietyâand the grief she carries over the loss of her father. Perfect for fans of The Doll People and The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez!
Lola Reyes doesnât want to leave Guatemala, a place full of warmth and sun, laughter and musicâwhere her abuela and prima and tĂos and tĂas surround her with love. Back in Sunnyside, itâs cold. Thereâs schoolwork and chores. And her mama transforms into Lolaâs super-serious school principal, Dr. Reyes.
Back at home...Lola can see, crystal clear, the empty place where Pop used to be. So Lola decides to bring a little bit of Guatemalaâand Popâback with her. She discovers his box of childhood worry dolls and sneaks them into her luggage, ignoring the warnings on the box not to use them. Later, when she tells them all her worries, from her friendship woes to the way Mama wonât talk about how sad she is, the worry dolls come to life. Worseâthey escape.
Lola has to enlist her neighbor and nemesis, Chance Townsend, to recapture the dolls because she discovers theyâre cursed. And as they absorb worries, theyâll grow bigger and bigger. If Lola canât find a way to stop them, theyâll burst, releasing all the worries theyâve absorbed a hundredfold on everyone in town. But when breaking the curse might mean confronting her own anxieties and grief, will Lola be able to face her emotions before itâs too late?