Wish Upon a Stray

by Yamile Saied Méndez

A heartwarming and authentic immigration story about a stray dog, the power of music, and celebrating old traditions along with new beginnings.

aría Emilia's life turns upside-down when she and her family immigrate from Argentina to the US. How can she make new friends when simply speaking English all day is exhausting?

Luckily, she has the company of a stray dog in the neighborhood, who happens to look and act just like her beloved pet cat back home. Eventually, it turns out the pup isn't a stray after all -- she belongs to María Emilia's new neighbor, Donovan. In order to spend more time with the dog (who totally isn't her reincarnated cat... right?), she agrees to sing in Donovan's band. But can Emilia find her new voice without losing herself?

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2021

About the author

Yamile (sha-MEE-lay) is a fútbol obsessed Argentine-American. She’s the mother of 5 kids and 2 adorable dogs. Yamile’s an inaugural Walter Dean Meyers Grant recipient, a graduate of Voices of our Nation (VONA) and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Writing for Children program.
She’s represented by Linda Camacho, from the Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely charming story of a young girl moving to America with her family and struggling to adjust. A sweet stray dog comes along to give her hope, and affection, and leads to opportunities for for friendship, among other lovely things.

[DM Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Cute, like a Hallmark movie about friendship and fitting in for MG readers

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows how we are all ourselves. Maria Emilia learned the struggle of moving from Argentina to the US. In learning better, English, school, and friends. I learned you shouldn’t judge people based on where they are from. People who understand what you’re going through will be there to support you. I thought it was brave when Maria Emilia singed her song. In front of lots of people. She opened her heart, which shows who she was. Which is a person with a big heart.

[Rowan Tiedt]

i loved this book because its about how one girl mets a stray and it changes her life because the dogs onwer comes to get his dog but turns out that the girl and the dogs onwer become friends i would recomened this book to anyone who loves saving or just loves dogs

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very cute and explores important themes that middle grade readers should be exposed to. It was clear that the author was writing with an authentic voice and that this was an own voices story that follows a young Argentine (she prefers that term to Argentinian) girl, Maria Emilia, who has to move from her home country to the US and struggles with accents, language, identity, and friendship.

If you’re looking for a MG book to offer insight into the immigrant experience, and the frustrations of adjusting to a new life with a scattered family and making new friends then I would recommend this book. Trigger warning for animal death. There is a healthy amount of animal content (cat & dog), but it serves as a framework and it’s not what the story is actually about.

This is the first “Wish” novel I’ve read and I wonder if the authors are approached by scholastic and have to write a book with specific parameters or if they’ve already written a book and their agent submits it to Scholastic as a book that would be good for the series with some tweaks. I wonder this because the name of the novel and the cover/advertising makes you think it will have much more to do with the animal aspect, but it’s much more about Maria Emilia finding her voice (literally and figuratively), and the plot is a little meandering. It moves incredibly slowly at first and I can see how it might be a little hard for some middle graders to stick with the whole way through.

The subplot regarding the letters was also a little unnecessary. I could see how they tied in, but the letters didn’t really add anything that wasn’t already there or addressed elsewhere on the plot and they didn’t move the story along.

I would have given this 3.5/4 stars until the novel really started to fall apart toward the end. The book mobile seemed like a random choice for Donovan to suggest and we never get to see the follow through. It would have been cool for Maria Emilia to come up with a suggestion. Cookie/Estrellita getting loose was a plot hole for me - how did the dog “open the door” to escape the house? Also, the dog seemingly had escaped from Donovan earlier too (before the time he had acknowledged, because when Maria Emilia first saw the dog, it was before his brother left for college, and Donovan didn’t mention Cookie escaping more than once). The forgiveness scene with Ashley Jane was way too easy and made no sense to me, it was very unsatisfying. Her character displayed such blatant xenophobic behavior and she received no consequences. It was also annoying that Maria Emilia never even tried to tell her parents how awful Ashley Jane was being to her. And the reasons that Ashley Jane and her mom gave for not immediately returning the dog also made no sense, they could have at least called. Very minor complaint - there’s a typo on the first page of the book.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this out loud with my 10 year old daughter. She gave it 4 stars.
I thought the beginning dragged quite a bit. My daughter was confused by a lot of the different names/nicknames Maria Emilia went by (but this was likely due to me reading it out loud a chapter at a time instead of continuously).
I also thought the part about Cookie being a reincarnation of Estrallita was a little odd and awkward.
But I loved the overall message and I thought it had some great themes to appeal to the tween age readers.

[Riddhi Ahuja · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read this summer and I have never read a book like this. This book is filled with emotion and such moments that get your eyes glued.It's about this young girl, Maria Emilia who has moved from Argentina to the US. The girl struggles with thoughts of making friends and deciding how she is going to live. Luckily she has the company of a stray dog that turns out to be her neighbor's dog and she has to go through a series of problems to end up having this bond with the dog.

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist of this book is a young woman immigrating from Argentina to the US (Utah). She has to face all the challenges of being a tween (making friends) with challenges of immigration. (Not getting placed correctly into classes, casual racism and casual xenophobia). She likes cats and dogs, and she enjoys signing. It's a sweet little book.

[Anya Darbinyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! I struggle with the similar conflict. I'm fluent in Russian, but I live in the US. My mom always tells me to speak Russian at home and English at school. I don't have to take ESL or extra help in school though. But I love my home language and it makes me unique. Love yourself and who you are and your family, just as María Emilía did 🫶.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so incredibly long winded. It’s a cute story but it droned on and on and on. I insisted on finishing it but it got to the point where i could only read half a chapter before both me and my daughter were bored out of our minds.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with my daughter. It started a little slow, but I loved the empathy I had toward María Emilia and the challenges she faced in having to learn in a second language! My daughters now wants to learn Spanish and loves it when I call her “mi amor”.

[Emmalee Higginson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book hands down. But I wished there was another book to say what happened after this book. Like is she ever going to go back and see her friends?? I feel that this was a good book, but it wasn't always the most interesting.

[Peggy McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For 4-6th graders, seemed muddled with the dog and cat. The adjustment to new country and school rang true.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stock a great book for upper elementary and middle school readers, especially of they have ever experienced starting over in a new place!

[Linnea Urban · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine.

[Tatum Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute, but the belief that the dog was a reincarnation of her cat was a little strange.

[abbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! 🤩 Just amazing with Cookie…

Although it didn’t seem to have “flirty moments”, I still really loved this book because it’s probably helping a lot of people right now. I know that I was speechless by the end of the book. I could HEAR María Emilia’s voice singing as I read. Highly recommend.

[Makenna Slagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so good, it was hard to put it down!

[Maya Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 4.25/5 (Rounded down)
Okay, this book surprised me. I had gotten this a while back but never actually read it. After procrastinating for a bit I decided to finally read this. And I was shocked. THE BOOK WAS��� GOOD! It was a super quick read and easy to get through. I don’t want to be a stickler but if I had to criticize, all I would want to say is that I wish Maria Emilia got revenge on AJ. She didn’t deserve to be let off easy. But still AMAZING.