Lola

by Karla Arenas Valenti

A simmering tale of magic, adventure, and the extraordinary bond between a brother and sister who'd journey to the ends of the Earth to save each other. From the acclaimed author of Lotería comes a heartfelt story rooted in Mexican magical realism.

Ten-year-old Lola has always been touched by magic. In her Mexico City home, built around a towering tree, she is accustomed to enchanted blooms that change with the seasons, a sandbox that spits out mysterious treasures, and mischievous chaneques that scuttle about unseen by all but her. Magic has always been a part of her life, but now she must embrace the extraordinary as never before.

Ever since The Thing That Happened, Lola's brother Alex has been sick. As his condition worsens, something begins eating away at the tree, causing its leaves and blossoms to crumble like ash. The two are related, Lola is sure of it, but how? Seeking a cure, she visits a grocery store oracle who bids her to follow the chaneques down one of their secret passages... into a hidden world.

Here in Floresta, a land of myths and monsters and marvels untold, lies the key to healing her brother. But the kingdom's young queen stands in the way. Lola must use her wits and face her deepest fears if there's any hope of saving Alex in time.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Magical Realism, Fiction, Grief, Audiobook, Magic

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2024

About the author

Karla Arenas Valenti is the Pura Belpré award winning author of best selling middle grade novels, chapter books, and picture books.

Her books are on various state reading lists and have received multiple starred reviews, as well as being being featured on NPR’s Sunday Edition, the Drew Barrymore Show, and several Best of the Year lists, including Kirkus Best Book of the Year, Banks Street Best Children’s Book, School Library Journal’s Best Books, Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, Evanston Public Library Best Book of the Year, PEOPLE’s pick for best children’s book, and Best Books for kids by Entertainment Weekly.

Karla grew up in Mexico City, in a house built around a tree. Her childhood was filled with fantastical elements, which she incorporates into her books–taking children on journeys steeped in magical realism and fantasy.

Karla currently resides in the Chicagoland area with her husband and three kids, two cats, and hundreds of books.

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

This middle grade contemporary fantasy is steeped in Mexican folklore, and set in Mexico City. It's about grief and depression, and while initially I felt a bit bored by too much fantasy world explaining (I love fantasy, but don't like it when the world building is explained or described too much), I admit, I cried at the end.

It's told from the perspective of 10-year-old Lola, who is the only one who can see the chaneques and the magic in the tree in her family's backyard. When a bad thing happens, her older brother Alex descends into darkness and despair, but whenever Lola is around, he's better. But then the tree starts dying, and Alex gets sick, too. Lola follows her best chaneque friend into the magical world of the tree, hoping she can find a way to cure the tree and Alex.

I did almost put this aside, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

[Skye Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorite books ever!

[Maggie - Busy Moms Read Too · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 🌟

This is a middle grade magical realism that revolves around a young girl and the fantastical world/creatures she loves. It has fun references to Mexican culture and food, of which I found myself reminiscing when I was a kid.

As the fantasy world began, I felt a bit lost. It was detailed and colorful but I felt it was too many things at such a fast pace. That’s why I didn’t go full 5 stars… BUT!!!

The ending was absolutely beautiful. Valenti weaves together a story of love, family, grief, and letting go of the things we wish were different. Possible spoiler, this story deals with the topic of death. It is approached with a gentle hand, but it is a difficult concept and I was sobbing by the end of it. What a wonderful book!!!

Content: Magical creatures from Mexican folklore, wise women that know everything about everything, ghosts, death. No language or sexual content

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love a lot of middle grade books and I really loved this one. I finished it in one day. This book was about acceptance, family, death, moving on. To the author it was also about lies and emotions and how it's okay to navigate those. It was about how it's okay to "feel those difficult feelings". I cried. I just felt that this was a beautiful book to address some of those difficult topics for younger readers. 5/5 stars.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC of this book.
I was enthralled with the idea of this book largely because it said it was based in magical realism. I haven't read much magical realism, but I wanted to see it executed in a middle grade novel, with a portal fantasy and family bonds and...

It doesn't matter what I wanted. I didn't get it.

This book has the same problem I had with the podcast Welcome To Night Vale. There's nothing to ground the reader in the space the book is creating. There's no normal. Everything is weird and magical and uncanny. Nature spirits that only Lola can see carry things around just to prove they're real. The children's sandbox glows and produces items that shouldn't be there. A bird flies around exploding into feathers and reforming every time someone sneezes. Even Mom's soup has magical healing properties. If this was billed as fantasy, maybe I wouldn't be bothered by all of this. But it was pitched as having roots in magical realism. I haven't read much magical realism, but I know it has to have some reality in it. It's in the name.

I really wanted to finish this book. I wanted to get through it. But as more and more bizarrely fantastical things were thrown at me, I started resenting the book for it. For lying to me about what it is. For expecting me to go along with anything and everything it put in front of me and not question it, even though it hadn't done the work of building a setting and world for it. For having Lola blissfully progress through that world and treat it as though it perfectly normal.

But the straw that broke it for me was right before I'm guessing Lola went to the other world. For a moment, Lola thinks that if not for recent events, she wouldn't believe in another world. And I lost it. I wanted to scream at her, "Your sandbox glows. Your flowers change color and pattern with the stories told by your invisible nature spirit friends. Your brother was raised partly by a vanilla-scented ghost. And the woman who told you about the other world did it by showing you magical images through her window, while her friend stirred her tea with a spoon that was invisible because everything she touches turns invisible. But another world is just too much???" It was a slap in the face. Not only had the book not done the work of building up a believable world with all these fantastical elements, it undermined the work it *had* done by then suggesting that the heroine who lived with all this magic somehow had a skeptical bone left anywhere in her body. I didn't believe it. I don't believe it. That was an insult to me as a reader. I couldn't get past it.

I wanted to finish this book, to give it a full chance, but I just can't. Not after that. I resent the book too much. Maybe it's better for kids. I don't know. But a story that's good for children should be good for adults too, as they say, and this isn't good for me. I wish it was. The images are charming and beautiful and the writing is good. But lines were crossed that snapped my suspension of disbelief like so many twigs and I just can't do it.

[Aurora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t know quite how I feel about this one. It was pretty run-of-the-mill MG adventure story right up until the twist at the end (which I only managed to spot a teeny bit before it was revealed; bravo, author). I was definitely engaged once we got to the climax, but it was a struggle to stay invested until that point. It was also sometimes distracting when the illustrations didn’t match the story exactly—the general picture would usually be right, but sometimes the details wouldn’t match the text.

So overall, I guess I’ll give this a 3 star for “I don’t want my time back but I don’t think I’d ever reread this.”

[Amber Grell]

Lola and Alex live near Mexico City in a house built around a tree that is always blooming. One day Lola notices some dry spots in the tree that are similar to emerging spots she is seeing on her brother’s skin, and she knows she needs to find help quick. Lola enlists one of the house’s chaneques to journey with her to a world of magical plants and folklore creatures in search of a cure.

This book is full of immaculate scenery with descriptions using all different senses. From flora and fauna to whimsical creatures, every page felt like a burst of colors and patterns anyone could fall in love with. Also, I loved how Valenti tied in Mexican folklore and Mesoamerican mythology throughout this story.

The plot twist completely took me by surprise and I’m still wondering how I never saw any of the signs. When recommending this to a younger reader, I’d make sure it was a reader that enjoys world-building as most of the book is made up of where Lola is and how she is getting there. Additionally, death and grief are two major themes of this book and the topics should be handled with immense care when discussing with young readers.

[Joan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to stop reading from the beginning but pushed myself because it didn’t make sense to stop. I should have stopped.

While books on grieving are needed in the library, I’m not sure this book is needed. This fantasy has very complicated world building within world building. It is so complicated that you lose track of the situation, which is suddenly exposed as something else altogether. I also rather resent the world building as yet another version of religion. Definitely not recommended but at least I’ll get another title out of this.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, I was just cruising and then that plot twist hit with a shot straight to my heart. What a fantastic book! I read Valenti's "Loteria" book last year and this year was just as god - very deserving of the Pura that it won. It's heartfelt and beautiful, with a great addition of magic and fantasy to make a compelling read that will step readers through each part of the story. Highly recommend!
contains magic, death

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A quest undertaken for love and healing, replete alike with astonishing marvels and provocative themes." [Kirkus Reviews]

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were tears at the end

[Pattie Babbitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending took me by surprise and made me cry!

[Ava F · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of the year. Just a beautiful magical realism that deals with grief. Currently going with grief there is a part in this book that really stuck with me and I just absolutely loved so much!

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rooted in Mexican folklore, this middle grade novel is filled with heart as well as important reflections on love, loss, and grief. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling it for others, but I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the narrator's world as well as Floresta, the magical realm where she journeys in order to save her brother, Alex, and her own world. The author hints at the origin of all the sickness in ten-year-old Lola's world as various plants and even Alex are growing sicker by the hour and becoming gray, but it's only late in the book that readers actually realize the truth. It's typical for families and young people to refer to traumatic events in euphemistic words or phrases. For Lola, it is The Thing That Happened, and her brother has never been the same since that time. When an oracle tells her what the cure might be, she follows one of the chaneques through a portal in her closet that leads to another land. The parallels between what's happening in both worlds is interesting since Lola finds it almost impossible to accept what she needs to do in order for Alex to get well. The world building here is astonishingly detailed, filled with magical flora and fauna and all sorts of transformations that will make some readers wish that they, too, could visit Floresta. For many, the passages about letting go vs. holding on and acknowledging the death doesn't mean the end may be eye-opening and comforting. There's a dreamlike, almost hypnotic quality to the prose here that makes readers homesick for the magical land where Lola traveled. The book contains several black and white sketches, some I liked more than others.

[Caitlin Prilliman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly was like? What the caterpillar felt, what their friends and families felt when their loved one transformed from one being into another? I didn't until I read this book. The theme of this book is "change is everything," and boy is it ever. I was not expecting the rollercoaster of emotions this book would take me on, but I loved it so much.
Lola, a 10 year old girl living in Mexico City, has to travel to a fantastical kingdom, and face fears when her older brother Alex starts to get sick, and she is the only one who can save him. The twist this book has is one of the best I have read in ages, in fact when I uncovered the twist, I was so blown away that I had to immediately go back and look for all the hints leading up to it.
I was sharing this book with a patron who both her and her daughter read a lot of the same books I read and she summarized it perfectly when she said that every teen needs to read this book. This is not a YA book, its Juvenile fiction, but that doesn't make it less than, in fact, that makes it so much more beautiful. There is death in this book, but unlike most books where death is the end, this book doesn't have that, in fact there is a beautiful life after death. It is the Stillness that will cause all life to stop.
The imagery in Lola was beautiful and I hope that we get a graphic novel of this book because I will be buying it. I will also be recommending this book to everyone I know, honestly this book is incredible and one that will stick with me for years to come. Don't discount it just because it is Juvenile fiction.
Please, everyone read it.

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lola and her brother Alex live with their parents in a mysterious and beautiful house near Mexico City. Lush plants are everywhere and there’s a tree – The Tree – INSIDE the house, around which the house is built, that is always blooming. One day Lola notices what she feels is an evil omen: there are dry, crusty spots on the leaves of the tree and on her brother Alex. As the spots on the tree and on Alex increase in number, it feels like she must do something to stave off the creeping decay. Lola and one of the house’s chaneques (sprites allied with nature), Cualli, meet with a seer who tells them that the tree is the legendary Tree of Life for the magical kingdom of Floresta, and that it and Alex are sick with The Stillness. Lola and Cualli undertake an epic journey to Floresta to find the answer.

This richly imagined world of magical plants and beneficent folkloric creatures is a backdrop for a tragedy that befell the family before the story starts. The author cleverly creates a fantasy that gently builds up to the serious reveal. Beautiful descriptive language makes the magical land feel real. At the end, death is the subject that Lola and the reader must come to terms with. I love how Valenti emphasizes that death is a transformation, and that saying goodbye is a way to begin again.

Whimsical black and white digital art is present on many pages. There’s a glossary of the terms from Mexican folklore and other concepts in the story, and a Reader’s Guide includes helpful questions for discussion. This would be an excellent book club title.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

10yo Lola and her 14yo brother Alex live in a magical place with a marvelous tree in a beautiful garden. Lola is the only one who can see all the magic happening in the garden, but when the plants and the beautiful tree start to exhibit signs of some kind of blight, and then her brother gets a rash that is similar, Lola tries to find out what she needs to do. It means traveling with a fairy of sorts to a magical world that only she can save, and save her own world too.

Oh dear, the world building was too much too fast! The narrator kept referencing "The Thing That Happened" as the family event that changed their lives - I was sure it was relevant to the ending, and we would eventually find out what the thing was, but I tired of all the details and "shrouded events" long before the story picked up and became interesting. Just barely recommending because the ending was satisfying and almost made me not regret getting there. The characters are Mexican.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful "fable" for anyone dealing with grief. With roots in Mexican folklore and Mesoamerican mythology, this story about a young girl not only trying to save her older brother from a mysterious ailment but also trying to save a magical realm tied to her fantastical house, is a beautiful metaphor for accepting change, moving on, and knowing that while somethings are impermanent, some things also live on forever. This was not a perfect book--there was a lot of world-building that might seem superfluous and took away a bit from Lola's journey, but I do think young readers will enjoy the magical elements. I would highly recommend this for anyone, especially young people, dealing with grief or who are having difficulty letting go or saying goodbye to something or someone who is important to them.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique magical world in which Lola lives among chaneques-what Mexican folklore connects to little creatures that are usually centered around nature. And Lola's home encases a tree so there are plenty of descriptions of flora and fauna as a result of this magical existence and Lola can see the chaneques. However not everything is happy and positive and has to do with her brother, Alex, who is sick. What happened? What does healing look like when death is around? Grief looks different for different people.

There are illustrations embedded into the story sprinkled throughout. It's contemplative and fantastical with a lot of description that makes it an intricate story, a little thicker than average but worth the ending.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It tackles some difficult and painful topics but the ride is worth the payoff and most of the book is very light and an immersive fantasy. The first half of the book was a 4 star read. The 2/3 mark dipped into a 3 star but the last 40 minutes was a 5 star and helped me understand why everything before was necessary and included. So I do think some people could be challenged or lose interest in the middle to 3/4 area. The payoff helped me understand how intentional the slower part was and helps prepare the audience for the ending.

A content warning: spoilers!

Grief, denial, loss of a family member. Loss of a sibling. Guilt. Depression.
The book is actually very upbeat and happy. Even with the difficult themes the overall tone is love and hope.

[Bonnie Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the 2025 Belipre Author Award for children’s literature, this kaleidoscope of a book draws the reader into its Mexican folklore and realism. Lola and her brother, Alex live in a remote home that is built around a majestic tree. This tree is home to a whole ecosystem of worldly and other worldly flora and fauna. Their days are filled with adventure. But the shadow of recent trauma isn’t completely gone. One day, Lola discovers ashy discoloration on both the plant life and on her brother’s arm. It gets worse, prompting Lola to seek answers. Along the way, love, loss, and acceptance are explored.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magical realism at it’s finest - wonderful world building set in Mexico City. A ten-year-old girl named Lola travels to a magical realm called Floresta with a chaneque companion. Floresta is designed within the root system of the tree of life and established so beautifully I will picture it in my mind for a long time to come. Themes of love, trust, bravery, conservation, protecting the greater good. An exciting adventure story. Then.

I thought this book was about one thing and it turned out to be about another thing, and that disappointed me a little bit. Still, it’s beautifully written and unusual.

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This magical fantasy takes place in Mexico City and is about a girl who travels to a magical world in order to save her brother from a mysterious illness, which is basically a metaphor for grief. While an interesting story with a good twist at the end, the worldbuilding was a bit complex and confusing and I think it would cause a lot of kids to lose interest in the story. There are a lot of Spanish words and references, so it may be a good choice for those interested in Mexican culture.

[Jacqui · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 2026-2027 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee. What the heck! Another book about dealing with grief. This time the grief is on multiple levels. A magical tree with a house built around it is slowly dying. In the kingdom of Floresta, the death of the old queen and the beginning of the new queen’s reign is the cause of the death of the tree. In the real world, Alex’s health is waning. The reason Alex is sick is because of grief.

“Accepting death as a part of life.”

[Adam Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, heartbreaking story of a magical home and family in Mexico City. The folklore and magical characters in this delightful novel are a great way to introduce kids to other cultures or for representation of their own. This is a heartfelt family fantasy from the beginning to the very emotional ending.

ARC from NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another magical and poignant story from Valenti, with a twist that I was not expecting. A thoughtful book about grief and death that has her signature touch of hope and lightheartedness. Even though covering a hard subject, she does not smother you with suffering. The audiobook was a lovely touch to bring the world to life.

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lola and her brother Alex are incredibly close. Alex has been struggling with a mysterious illness ever since the bad thing happened. Lola travels with the fairy-type people to a magical land where she meets the Queen to try to solve the problem.

Winner of the Belpre Author Award, this a beautifully, if slightly confusingly written story.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful setting w a magical tree leading to a magical realm. When both the tree and her brother grow ill, Lola travels into the magical world to find answers. Key among them is that one must face the truth even when it is very painful. When we don’t allow the truth to change us by ignoring it or denying it, we fall victim to a deadly stillness. Fantasy uses elements from Latino folklore.

[Megan Markey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 9 year old daughter recommended this book to me after she read it, so picked up the audio thanks to PRH audio. This book wrecked me in the best way. Beautifully written and packed full of Mexican culture and folklore, this story focused on magical realism and learning to make difficult decisions in the best interest of those you love. Highly recommend for middle grade and adults alike!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I was really excited about the magical realism/fantasy elements in this one, but the execution was a little lackluster. Most of the world building was telling and not showing. However...Valenti nailed the ending!