{"id":453,"date":"2025-10-13T12:03:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T16:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/?p=453"},"modified":"2025-10-13T12:03:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T16:03:42","slug":"iveliz-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/13\/iveliz-explains\/","title":{"rendered":"Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iveliz Explains It All<\/em> follows seventh grader Iveliz, a Puerto Rican girl navigating mental health challenges, family tension, and life after trauma. She\u2019s determined that this school year will be different\u2014no trouble at school, no arguments with her mom, and definitely no skipping her medication. But life rarely goes as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her abuela Mimi has just moved from Puerto Rico and doesn\u2019t believe Iveliz needs medicine at all. Her mom doesn\u2019t seem to understand her feelings, and her classmates can be cruel. Through journal entries and verse, Iveliz begins to share the pain and confusion she\u2019s been carrying and slowly learns that healing isn\u2019t about being \u201cfixed,\u201d but about finding the words to explain it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner of a Newbery Honor<\/a><\/strong>, this novel-in-verse is a powerful, emotional portrait of what it means to live with mental illness, to love imperfectly, and to learn self-advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Worked<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • An authentic voice<\/strong> \u2013 Iveliz\u2019s narration feels raw and real. She\u2019s emotional, funny, impulsive, and hurting, just like many middle schoolers learning how to name what they feel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Representation that matters<\/strong> \u2013 Arango captures the cultural nuances of being Puerto Rican and the generational divide around mental health and medication. For many Latinx readers, especially those navigating similar family dynamics, this will feel deeply validating.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Mental health handled with care<\/strong> \u2013 The book doesn\u2019t shy away from therapy, trauma, or medication. It shows that healing is not linear and that taking medicine doesn\u2019t make someone weak\u2014it makes them brave.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hopeful realism<\/strong> \u2013 The ending doesn\u2019t promise that Iveliz is \u201call better.\u201d Instead, it shows growth, communication, and small victories. It\u2019s honest and hopeful, exactly what kids need.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    What Didn’t Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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    • Language barrier moments<\/strong> \u2013 There\u2019s a lot of untranslated Spanish, which might frustrate some readers. Personally, I liked how it mirrored Iveliz\u2019s mom\u2019s confusion. It puts English-only readers in that same space of not fully understanding, which is powerful.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Repetition<\/strong> \u2013 A few sections circle back to similar emotions or conflicts, but that repetition realistically reflects how mental health struggles often feel in real life.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Limited context at times<\/strong> \u2013 The verse structure beautifully captures emotion, but sometimes I wanted a bit more narrative depth or background detail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Iveliz Explains It All<\/em> hit me straight in the heart. It\u2019s beautifully written and emotionally honest, a book that could truly help the kids who need it most. For students dealing with anxiety, depression, or trauma, this story says, you\u2019re not alone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      As a former middle school teacher, I kept thinking how much my students, especially those from bilingual or bicultural homes, would see themselves in Iveliz. This book is a gift for readers who are \u201cin between\u201d worlds, learning to use their voices, and trying to make sense of emotions adults sometimes dismiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      My Rating: 4\/5 stars<\/strong>.
      A poignant, powerful, and necessary addition to classroom libraries. It\u2019s a book that helps kids see the strength in asking for help and the courage it takes to explain it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Iveliz Explains It All follows seventh grader Iveliz, a Puerto Rican girl navigating mental health challenges, family tension, and life after trauma. She\u2019s determined that this school year will be different\u2014no trouble at school, no arguments with her mom, and definitely no skipping her medication. But life rarely goes as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[25,81,103,78,18,24,106,19],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-for-middle-school","tag-13-15-age-books","tag-best-books-for-middle-schoolers","tag-book-in-verse","tag-book-review","tag-books-for-middle-school","tag-middle-grade","tag-middle-grade-poetry","tag-young-hoosiers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}