Review: Grow Up Luchy Zapata by Alexandra Alessandri

Grow Up Luchy Zapata
Alexandra Alessandri
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published July 23, 2024

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About Grow Up, Luchy Zapata

A funny, relatable middle school drama about two Colombian American girls who have always been BFFs—until sixth grade turns everything upside down.

Luchy Zapata is starting middle school, and she’s muy excited. She and her two best friends, Cami and Mateo, will finally be at the same school. Luchy and Mateo will be in art class together, and she and Cami can try out for the same soccer team! As long as they’re all together, Luchy can handle anything.

But Cami has been acting weird ever since she got back from visiting family in Colombia. She’s making new, “cool” friends who just seem mean. And suddenly, everything about Luchy and Mateo is too immature for her.

Luchy is determined to help Cami remember how special their friendship is. They’ve been BFFs their whole lives, and that can’t just disappear in a poof of glitter! But…what if Cami doesn’t even want to be friends anymore?

My Review

Middle grade stories that explore this moment in friendships hold a special place in my heart. I remember having a best friend with whom this happened, and I had many of the same hurt and confused feelings that Luchy does. Why was the friendship suddenly changing when I hadn’t changed at all?

I love Luchy’s family, especially her relationship with her grandmother. She takes care of Luchy, listens to her, and tells her things she needs to hear. She even backs Luchy up when she confronts her parents about something. I liked that. Most of Abui’s dialog is in Spanish, and the author does a great job helping unfamiliar readers understand the words through translation or context clues that don’t slow the story down. I love that the author includes some expressions and explains the literal interpretation and what they mean.

For sports fans, this book takes a little bit to get into the scenes showing soccer matches. She practices with her friends to prepare for team tryouts, but it isn’t until the tryouts themselves that we begin getting more of a play-by-play description of Luchy on the field. Luchy has to work really hard to balance her feelings about Cami with her commitment to her sport and her team. I thought that tug-of-war was another element the author handled well.

Grow Up, Luchy Zapata has a lot to love, from its Colombian representation to the close-up of a friendship transitioning to middle school to the joy of playing a team sport like soccer.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Luchy and her friend Cami are Colombian American. Matteo is Chilean American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Cami starts talking about who has a crush on whom. Luchy doesn’t feel ready to think about that.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some of the girls start taking things from each other. The pranks are hurtful and get out of hand until someone confesses to a teacher.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.