Lety Out Loud: A Wish Novel

by Angela Cervantes

Return to the animal shelter featured in Gaby, Lost and Found, with a novel about friendship and finding your voice.
Can Lety find her voice before it's too late?

Lety Muñoz's first language is Spanish, and she likes to take her time putting her words together. She loves volunteering at the Furry Friends Animal Shelter because the dogs and cats there don't care if she can't always find the right word.

When the shelter needs a volunteer to write animal profiles, Lety jumps at the chance. But grumpy classmate Hunter also wants to write profiles -- so now they have to work as a team. Hunter's not much of a team player, though. He devises a secret competition to decide who will be the official shelter scribe. Whoever helps get their animals adopted the fastest wins. The loser scoops dog food.

Lety reluctantly agrees, but she's worried that if the shelter finds out about the contest, they'll kick her out of the volunteer program. Then she'll never be able to adopt Spike, her favorite dog at the shelter!

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Animals, Latinx, Friendship, Childrens, Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2019

About the author

Angela Cervantes is the award-winning author of several popular children's novels including Lety Out Loud, which won the Pura Belpré Honor Award in 2020.

Her other novels include The Cursed Moon, which won Florida's Sunshine State Young Readers Award. Angela's other middle grade novels include the Frida Kahlo-inspired mystery, Me, Frida and The Secret of the Peacock Ring; Allie, First At Last; and Gaby, Lost and Found.

Her latest children’s novel is Anomalies 53: Into the Shadows which is book 1 of a two-book series published by Harper Collins.

Additionally, Angela authored the junior novelization for Disney/Pixar's animated-film, Coco and Disney's animated film, Encanto. She also collaborated with American Girl Dolls for the novel Maritza: Lead With Your Heart.

Angela’s short stories have been featured in Chicken Soup for The Latino Soul and the Young Adult anthology Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America.

Angela is a daughter of a retired elementary-school teacher who instilled in her a love for reading and storytelling. Angela writes from her home in Kansas City. When she's not writing, Angela enjoys reading, running, gazing up at clouds, and taking advantage of Taco Tuesdays.

To learn more about Angela and her books, visit her website at angelacervantes.com.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a refreshing, sweet, and absolutely heartwarming book! It feels like a hug not only to you, but to the animals in your life. Lety is attending day camp with her friends at an animal shelter. She's both nervous and excited about writing pet profiles, since English is her second language. This is not only a story of animals and friendship, but in unapologetically living your true self in America, and the people that matter will always stand by that right. Lety Out Loud is the happiest, most uplifting kind of tear-jerker. Please do not miss out on this must-read middle grade.

[Shannon Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story about finding your voice, adorable animals, and unexpected friendship. A must-read.

[Olivia's Bookish Places & Spaces · Rating 5 out of 5]

This past semester I took ESL pedagogy course. So, I thought it would be interesting to read a fiction book about ESL. I absolutely loved Cervantes’ first book. Because I loved her first book so much, I decided to read the second book – and it was just as good!

First, I really loved all the characters, especially Letty and Dr. Villalobos. All of them were endearing in their own way. For such a short novel there was some serious character growth/progression.
The pacing of the novel was really well done. The author did a solid job at incorporating so much backstory in the book.

The writing is also fantastic! Cervantes’ writing is accessible to both children and adults. One of the many wonderful things about this book is how it deals with some very serious topics through the lens of a child. First, she addresses the social isolation of the ESL crowd. Through Lety the reader can really see how alienated ESL students can be from their other classmates and just how vulnerable ESL students are both in and out of the classroom. The reader sees the various social challenges that Lety and other students encounter. We also get to see the challenges that families that do not speak English face.

Another aspect that this book deals with is assimilation. Cervantes really raises some questions about language and how it can be weaponized with regard to assimilation. I think Cervantes did a solid job of showing that just because someone speaks two languages it does not make them any less American. The message that everyone should learn a second language is very much woven throughout the book. The messages of compassion and building bridges to people, particularly the marginalized, were also present.

Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone!
I would especially recommend this book to those who oppose learning foreign languages, those who want to ban immigration and those who want to ban ESL programs.

[Kristen Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me cry at the end. I wish I could adopt all the pets. This is possibly the best book I've read and I want to buy a million copies and hand it out to all my students. I love the topics in here - the struggles of being an ELL student, competition, and of course helping lovable adoptable cats and dogs at a shelter. I just loved this story and I want every cat and dog to find a furever home.

[Laura Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this feel good story about a young Latinx girl finding her voice...and some dog love! ❤️🐶
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Lety is volunteering at a shelter with her friends for the summer. She wants to be the shelter scribe and write profiles for the animals that need homes, but she lacks confidence in her writing skills because English is her second language. This book is short, uplifting and relevant. .
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Available NOW on Sora from the school/MLS collection, SAILS and BPL! Email or message me if you want to learn how to add ALL these libraries for free! Recommended for grades 3-6. By @angelacervantes_author and the winner of the Pura Bepre honor award. 😍
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[Alina Karapandzich · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a feel-good, Middle grade chapter book, then this is definitely the book for you! This book made me smile countless times and the ending left me feeling so warm inside. It also gracefully covers difficult topics like racism against Latinos in the U.S. and the struggles of being an immigrant child trying to fit in and how animals can make that transition a lot easier with their unconditional love. Love love love this book

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, to be a kid again and to have this kind of book written for us. If I were an immigrant, I would feel so respected & represented. If I were white, I would be enlightened. And either way I'd feel joyful and cozy. There's a realistic incident of awful racism, but everyone except that one dude is very cool and nice. What a book for sharing hope and inspiration. Highly recommended.

Btw, I have not read the rest of the series. They're not needed to appreciate this. I don't know whether I will read more. If I were a kid, absolutely. But I do have an awful lot of tbr already that I really really want to read.

[Erica Chaillot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it at work with my work kiddos.

[Yamile Méndez · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I love Angela's writing, and this beautiful story of a young girl finding her voice was perfect. I loved seeing a glimpse into the lives of my favorite characters from Gaby Lost and Found.

[Roxy Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book “Lety Out Loud” by Angela Cervantes is about an English learner named Lety who volunteers at a shelter. Lety and her best friends were volunteering at an animal shelter summer camp called Furry Friends. The shelter needs somebody to write animal profiles, and just as Lety is about to sign, a boy named Hunter gets in her way and signs his name. They can’t decide who will write the profiles, so they set up a secret competition for the job. They split the profiles up so Lety gets five and Hunter gets five, and whoever gets all of their animals adopted first gets to be the shelter scribe. Can Lety make good profiles and get these animals adopted before Hunter? I recommend this book to any animal lover because this book shows you how to not give up and find your voice. I would also recommend that you know how to read Spanish because there are parts in this book that are in Spanish they have no translation.

[Serenity · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher through my district library services*

I really enjoyed this book, and I read it rather quickly.

Lety is an immigrant, who has been in the US for three years and is still learning English. She is spending the summer at an animal shelter summer camp with her two best friends. She finds herself in a contest to be the shelter "scribe," writing profiles for animals up for adoption.

I appreciated the insight into Lety's experience as a language learner (phrases like "miss the boat" confuse her--something it's easy to forget for those of us who are native speakers). I also liked that we got to see a little more of her opponent in the contest, and the reminder that we shouldn't always take people at face value when we don't know what's going on in their lives. Although Lety is just a smidge of a Mary Sue, it's still an enjoyable story and I can't wait to share this with my students.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book about junior high esl students working at an animal shelter and a contest between one of them and a arrogant native born american to write the best animal profiles. Some Spanish in the book and a three legged husky. The Husky doesn't appear til the end (v. small spoiler), my Mom and i fell in love w/a three legged samoyed we met at the San Francisco Samoyed Rescue annual picnic years ago that we were unable to adopt, reading about a three legged husky brought back wonderful memories

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book! Every student should read this book, and be more open to learning new languages and helping other kids learn English. I also really enjoyed all of the focus on writing about the animals at the shelter. By the way, I don't want the kiddos learning English to lose their accents! It makes everything they say more beautiful! I highly recommend this book!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Sequoyah book #1 for the 2021 year. Super sweet story which will be perfect for animal lovers or kids who have ever struggled to fit in in a new place. I feel this book will especially resonate with language learners.

[Keri Murcray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was soo good! I loved the story and the characters and it was so heart-warming. Definitely want to read more by this author.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every now and then my heart craves a precious middle grade novel and this was fun while also tackling big issues in an approachable manner.

[Pumkin pie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun and exciting! Definitely one of my favorites. Any one who loves animals will love this.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went in to this book with lower expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. It was a well-written book about issues many students (younger and older) may experience.
Lety's family is from Mexico and for the last three years she has been in ELL classes learning English and learning to perfect the language. She has other friends who are also immigrants, just not necessarily from Mexico. The one thing they have in common is their constant feeling of wanting to fit in. So, when she gets an opportunity to attend a summer day camp at the local Animal Shelter, she decides to forego the ELL summer school she usually attends. Soon, she is in a competition with one of her classmates to become the "shelter scribe" and write the profiles for animals at the shelters. These profiles go online and are posted at the shelter. This is an opportunity for Lety to practice her English reading and writing skills. And it's easy for her because she LOVES the animals.
Soon, though, the camp becomes more about making new friends and standing up for others than it is just about the camp experience.
This book has very timely issues such as an angry man in a "red baseball cap" telling Lety's friend, her mom and the pharmacist to speak English because they are in America, and a classmate who's father and mother are divorcing and the issues get rather hateful and complicated.
The ultimate story revolves around the kids and the animals, so it would have broad appeal.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angela Cervantes’ Lety Out Loud is a book that will appeal to a broad range of middle grade readers of both genders. With its setting almost exclusively at an animal rescue shelter, those who love all things furry will appreciate the plethora of four (and three!) legged friends. Readers of realistic fiction will find at least one character that they connect to as Hunter, Mario, Lety, Brisa, Alma, and Kennedy present with a variety of genders, races, personalities, and with strikingly different circumstances. And without even realizing it, those who join these kids in their summer volunteer program will be encouraged to actively seek solutions to life’s tough issues of divorce, loss, adapting to new places, and bigotry and to never give up when something is truly worthwhile. Excellent book that will likely send many to their parents with requests to go adopt a new friend at their closet animal rescue center! Highly recommended with no content reservations for readers in grades 4-6.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Furry Friends Animal Shelter is the backdrop where students volunteer to get animals adopted. Lety, a bilingual student, feels the challenge of learning a new language and finding the right words. She, along with Hunter, another student volunteer, both want to write pet profiles but this task turns into a competition with misunderstandings and an unexpected friendship that develops.

This book shares an ELL Students process in learning a new language and the fears of fitting in and finding a voice.

Exceptional book! I was enthralled and rooting for the kids AND all the pets to the very end.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Allen White Award Nominee 2021/2022

This is a great middle grade read that I will definitely be recommending to younger readers in the library. It's cute, has great characters, has animals, and discusses hard and relevant topics in a way that I think younger readers will relate to and understand.

[Jora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only 197 pages, not 208. Weird, because this is a hardcover. I found this book to be for a very young audience (7-9). I didn't love it, or even really enjoy it. The book is sweet, but the characters are hard to love, and the descriptions are okay at best.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man, I love this book!!! So sweet and hopeful, while still being honest and realistic. I can't wait to bring this to my next book talk with third graders and hopefully they'll all love it as much as I do!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a 3.5 for me, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, thrilled to return to the animal shelter featured in the author's earlier boo, Gaby, Lost and Found. It's the summer before her sixth grade year, and Lety Munoz and her friends Brisa and Kennedy are volunteering at the Furry Friends Animal Shelter as part of their summer camp. Lety longs to adopt Spike, a terrier whose abundant energy has prompted his past adopters to return him to the shelter. But Lety sees something special in the dog. Even though she's been in ELL classes for the past few years at El Camino Charter Elementary, Lety hasn't mastered all the idioms that are sprinkled into the English language, and her confusion results in some authentic but humorous moments. She volunteers to help write profiles for 10 of the animals in hopes that they'll get adopted. But Hunter, a boy from the same grade but a different class in her school, also volunteers, and their friends decide to make the profile-writing a competition instead of a collaborative effort. At first it seems that Hunter is a jerk and quick to put Lety down, but eventually, as she learns about his secret pain and they get to know each other, they become friends, and she realizes that he has a soft heart. The author has crafted a story that will appeal to animal lovers and fans of the underdog even while making it clear just how prejudiced others can be toward anyone who doesn't speak English clearly. There are passages that describe how Lety hates being called an ELL and others in which her brother Eddie encourages their father to learn to speak English in order to fit in better. There are also moments of sadness over losing their Spanish language and culture as well as incidents of adults behaving badly and youngsters such as Lety coming up with creative ideas combining literacy and animals. Although everything turns out just fine in the end, fifth and sixth grade readers will be holding their breaths for much of the time in concern for the characters and those dogs and cats at the shelter. It would be hard to resist those animal profiles.

[Sarah T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh lord, I loved this book so much. I wish I had Lety's (and Eddie too, man, he was such a totally sweet little badass!) courage (and I'm closer to 40 than 30 these days)!

My fear with this book is that people will gripe about it being too political, with the racist old white man who wears "a red hat," and yells at Brisa, her pregnant mother and a pharmacist for speaking Spanish in America. Well, you know what? This happens EVERY DAY to immigrants, not just in America but all over the world. Its not enough to be here as a productive, taxpaying member of society. You have to learn English AS FAST AS YOU CAN. That's not enough either--BETTER GET RID OF THAT ACCENT! The standards that immigrants are held too are so high that as much as they try, people will always vilify them and it's horrible.

But kids NEED to know that this stuff happens. This book is a safe way to expose them to this particular ugliness in the world, AND it also shows that if you see something wrong, if you see people getting mistreated--speak up. Eddie was 8 and he stood between Brisa and her mom, and the old white man with the red hat, told/showed that man they are all learning English. Just like him. That was a powerful scene and kids need to not only see the reality of our times, but that they can help people too, just by speaking up.

The old man is even humanized later in the book when he shows up at the shelter with his 2 daughters. He doesn't change his ways, but seeing him with 2 sweet kids just proves AOC right, "Having daughters does not make you a decent man... treating people with dignity and respect is what makes a decent man."

I liked Hunter too. He was a great example that when people aren't being nice, there may be a tragic story behind that behavior. He also shows the reader that people can grow and change.

And Lety. Lord, she was so brave and compassionate. I just want to hug her!

This book was fantastic, and I hope I don't see people griping about it being "partisan." It's about a human experience, period.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up from 3.5. I wanted to like this book more than I did. I appreciated the look into the life of a bilingual student learning English after moving to the US, including the accurate racism coming from a man wearing a red baseball cap; this aspect is what made be rank the book as highly as I did. The rest did not live up to it for me.

Pros: The friendship at the end between Lety and Hunter is sweet, Lety's family is kind and supportive (which can be rare in children's books), the animal profiles are cute, the biggest pro is the look into an experience we don't often see in kids lit.

Cons: At the beginning Lety and her friends are downright mean girls to Hunter, laughing at him behind his back, making jokes about him, giving him mean nicknames, and this is never addressed; we see Lety learn to forgive Hunter for the smaller ways he was mean but never really see her acknowledge, let alone apologize for or make amends for, the way she was. This lack of self-reflection really bothers me. Adding to it is how one of the leaders of the program makes fun of Hunter's name, making him visibly uncomfortable, along with other times she laughs at Hunter, and this is laughed off as fine. I dislike how the sweet friendship that develops between Hunter and Lety gets a tinge of romance from a friend's portrayal of it; why can't they just be friends without it being romantic? Luckily that is mostly dropped by the end. I also found Lety's deep desire for Spike, that underlies the whole book, unrealistic and irritating since she never really met him until the end. I also found Lety overriding Hunter's wishes at the end to guilt the family, and how everyone treated that as an unambiguously good thing, irritating. Thinking you know better than someone and acting against their wishes is at minimum not an uncomplicatedly positive act.

Overall this book brings to light some good issues that are hard to find portrayals of in kids lit, but it is full of not great general behavior models.

A5 R5 K5

[Jinghan]

Alternative Assessment:

I found this is an adorable and heartwarming book. Through the cover of the book, we can predict that it’s a book about a dog. However, after I finished reading the book, I realized that the book contains a lot of other important topics, such as rivalries, determination, and friendship. All these topics make the book exciting and meaningful. So my idea for the alternative assessment would be the book cover design. “Pupils need to understand words and have mental images to connect different ideas to make meaning from their reading texts” (Yusuf, 2016, p. 21). The book cover design will require students to use drawings and visuals to presents their comprehension of the story. According to Yusuf (2016, p.20), drawing pictures is a great way to nurture students’ creation of sensory images. The purpose of my alternative assessment would be that students could use their creativity to design an attractive and impressive book cover to show their understanding. Before students start their assessment, I would inform students of the common elements contained in a book cover, such as the title, author, images, and book blurbs, and so on. In addition, students have to identify all the important elements in the story and try to use their drawings to present these elements in their book cover. Some important elements they could consider including the characters, the main events, the settings, and the topics. Then students have to write a rationale for their book cover to explain the elements they chose to include and how they relate to the book. Students’ walk would be displayed around the classroom, and all the students could walk around to see each other’s ideas.

Reference:
Yusuf, H. O. (2016). Effectiveness of using creative mental images in teaching reading comprehension in primary schools in Nigeria. American Journal of Educational Research, 4(1), 18-21.

[Suzanne Dix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and wholesome, Lety Out Loud is a story about loyalty and friendship. Heading into sixth grade, Lety and her two best friends, Kennedy and Brisa, have signed up for Furry Friends Animal Shelter summer camp. The camp assigns different tasks for the campers and Lety is eager to become a Shelter Scribe, someone who writes the witty little blurbs to describe the dogs and cats that are up for adoption. It’s a crucial job that helps get the pets into forever homes and though Lety is still a new English-language learner, she wants to try to both help the animals and improve her English. Mean-boy Henry however has other ideas and thinks his superior reading and writing skills should make him scribe. The campers cook up a contest to see whether Henry or Lety’s animal profiles get the most animals adopted. The competition makes Lety uncomfortable but she can’t help getting pulled in. Working alongside Henry also has some interesting outcomes, the most important is finding out that Henry is struggling with a family issue and his grumpiness is because his dog was left behind when his parents split up. He misses his dog like an ache and Lety can’t help but try to improve the situation. Lety is a great friend and frequently thinks of others before herself which also makes her a great candidate to be a pet owner. She’s had her eye on Spike, a rascal of a dog, since the beginning of camp but now needs to prove to the shelter director (who has found out about the competition and is none too pleased), her family and herself. A nice addition to upper elementary or middle grade collections where animal fiction is popular. There is also the opportunity to use this novel to highlight how hard ELL students work to better themselves in school despite disdain and mockery from classmates.

[Trisha Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why I chose this book: I chose this book because I'm considering it for our library's Battle of the Books list.

Brief summary: Lety is an English Language Learner, so when she does some volunteer work at an animal shelter where the job is to write profiles to help pets get adopted, she is self-conscious of her abilities. But, she commits to a contest with a grumpy boy named Hunter. The rule of the contest is to use certain vocab words in their profiles, like supersonic, infectious, or rigid. To Lety, these words pose a significant challenge, but Hunter brags about being a good reader and writer. How will this contest shape Lety's experience practicing English and how might it affect her relationship with the grumpy Hunter?

What I didn't like about this book: I can't point to anything that I didn't especially like; this book just wasn't an instant favorite.

What I like about this book: I like that this book features a non-native English speaker and incorporates Spanish voabulary in a way that is accessible to non-native Spanish speakers. I like that the book doesn't shy away from hard topics, like discrimination against Spanish speaking people in America, but that it helps the reader through these challegning moments by providing closure. I love the way a vocabulary contest frames the plot of this book, which introdces young readers to vocabulary in a non-intimidating way.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leí este libro en español, y me gustó, pero creo que la versión original escrito en inglés sería mejor. Habían algunas frases que sonaban como lo habían traducido palabra por palabra. Se trata de Lety, una estudiante del programa ELL, que está pasando su verano trabajando como voluntaria en un refugio de animales. Le gusta escribir, entonces su trabajo es ser escritora de perfiles de animales en el refugio para que encuentren un hogar. Hay otro niño, Hunter, que también quiere ser el escritor. Entonces, se entran en una competencia de ver quién es el mejor escritor. Lety, por supuesto, tiene bastante inseguridad porque inglés es su segundo idioma y teme no poder escribir tan bien como Hunter. (Me podía relacionar con ella porque también tengo bastante inseguridad de hablar y escribir en mi segundo idioma aunque soy orgullosamente bilingüe.)

Al principio pensaba que este libro era demasiado sencillo, y mis estudiantes estaban de acuerdo porque lo empezamos como lectura en voz alta y después de 40 páginas no querían seguir con este libro. Pero yo lo terminé, y sí tenía algunos temas más profundos, como el prejuicio, el divorcio, y la identidad.

Entonces, me gustó, pero prefiero leer libros escritos en español en vez de libros que han sido traducidos a español del inglés.