This is such a beautiful story about a little girl, her dead mother, and her culture. I loved how this book gave the Day of the Dead its due respect and portrayed it in a way that made it understandable. The story itself, dealing with loss, is such a touching one. This book did an excellent job covering that.

DNF @ 39%

This was a little too focused on religion for my tastes. I realize that Day of the Dead is a very religious holiday and ceremonial but the lead up to the actual event was centered entirely around the sins, confessions and actions of our lead girl.

Flipping forward some and skimming some pages it didn’t seem like much plot was going to creep in and instead mostly focused around out lead girls attempt to come to terms with her mothers suicide being deemed a sin.

I’m sure there is a lot to learn and process in this story. Unfortunately the writing was very simple and boring to me and I saw no value in continuing forward with this one.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Hamilton's book really delves in intricately to Glorieta's emotions as she deals with the grief of her mother's suicide. The complex family dynamics worked really well here and I could see a lot of kids really connecting to the story!

This was a beautiful, heart-warming book and I would recommend it highly.
The story follows Glory as she deals with the aftermath of her mother's death, her father's remarriage and the arrival of two step-siblings, one small and cute and the other who seems determined to make Glory's life a living hell.
With the arrival of Alice, her new stepmother, her father has moved her mother's ashes to a drawer. They cannot be buried with the rest of the family due to he mother committing suicide, but Glory wants to persuade her aunt to let the ashes be buried in time for the Day of the Dead.
Glory is an intricate and believable main character and I loved her relationship with her best friend River, cousin Mateo and her aunts. The parental figures in this book are strong and approachable, not absent as in so many children's books, but they are also flawed.
The scene where Glory is taken to an immigration centre due to be stepmother being unable to find her birth certificate during a raid is both disturbing and heart-breaking. I know very little about the situation apart from what I've heard on the news but, if this is any reflection of reality, we need to do better.
An important 'window' book for me, opening a viewpoint into a culture and language that I know little about. I will be writing a full review on my blog as I wish that diverse books such as this were actually the mainstream!

Here again I find myself reading and reviewing an absolutely brilliant work that is so timely in its content that I feel the need to shout: "EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!" Particularly American officials as this work touches on immigration, child detention centers for illegal immigrants, and the constant fear that many born-and-bred Americans face on a daily basis due to racism and prejudice. Of course, that's not the only difficult issue this works tackles which makes the novel even more important to read. Hamilton takes on matters of suicide, poverty, blended families, bullying, fathers abandoning their children, and the traditions surrounding the sacred holiday of Dias de Muertos. The main character is also a young Mexican-American, making this a great pick for building a library of diverse characters. It is an incredible work filled with numerous important themes and topics that will resonate with a wide audience of readers.

Wow. What an amazing story. Where were books like these when I was growing up? Where to even start. Poor Glorieta! She has a really full plate, Her mother's suicide, her dad's remarriage to a woman with awful daughter and a little son, her mother's family refusing to bury her mother in the family crypt because she's a suicide, deportation, immigration, so many issue! Very engaging story and timely. I think kids 6th grade and up will get into this story. YA's and adults would likely enjoy the tale as well. Kersten Hamilton has put together a fine story worthy of an award.

A beautifully written book on grief, forgiveness, and a new beginning. This unique story is perfect for kids that are advance readers between 9 to 11 years old that are wanting a slightly different book to read (honoring the dead, magic).

'Papi held me tight and told me Mamá’s depression was a sickness. We aren’t ashamed when people die of cancer or pneumonia. We can talk about it and cry. He said mamá had been too sick to understand how much her leaving would hurt us.'

It’s been a while since I’ve read children’s books, as my son and daughter are adults now, but sometimes I see books that grab my attention. In Days of the Dead, Glorieta Espinosa is trying her best to move on from her mother’s suicide even accepting her father’s marriage to a white Texan woman, Alice. That doesn’t mean she has to accept Alice’s nightmare of a daughter, Lilith. Since she’s stormed into her life, she’s done nothing but rip off her friends and spread her cruelty. Angus, her new step-brother isn’t so bad, even if he sometimes thinks he is a truck. When she isn’t dodging Lilith’s twisted games, Glorieta is devising plans to convince her Tía Diosonita (the town patron) to allow her mother’s ashes to be buried with the rest of her family.

Tía Diosonita is a strict Catholic, she refuses to see the souls of her ancestors, their people, be stained with a suicide in their midst even if she loved Glorieta’s mother as her own. Glorieta doesn’t have a chance to see her mother’s spirit during los Días de los Muertos if she is kept out of the cemetery. Her mother will have no company in the afterlife, no chance to reunite when it’s Glorieta’s time to die. Tía Diosonita won’t even talk about her mother! Could there be things she doesn’t know, shame her own Tía carries with her about what happened to her mother?

How can she convince her Tía of anything when poisonous hatred is collecting in her own heart, soul? She wants nothing more than to see her tormentor, step-sister Lilith get her just deserts! After an incident with immigration officers she is traumatized, then raging but she must keep her word as an Espinosa to never reveal Lilith’s true nature, having struck a deal. That all changes when Glorieta goes above her Tía Diosonita, which feels like an unforgivable betrayal, a sin! Accident or not, it’s caused a crack in her family, one she isn’t sure she can ever mend. She feels cast out, as doomed as those in Fool’s Field, where the dead were too sinful in life to sleep (be buried) in consecrated ground.

This is when Glorieta will be tested, and discover if she is weak or strong.

This was a wonderful story about love, compassion, tradition and immigration. It would be perfect for 6 grade and up.

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A really enjoyable read. My ten year old loved the themes in this book and the style of writing. The cover was also absolutely beautiful and really inviting.

There are many things going on in this book, but for the most part, it works. The main focus is on Glory and how she is adjusting to her new family. After the death of her mother, her father has remarried a woman named Alice who has two children from a previous marriage. After their father unexpectedly drops them off to stay with their mother for a while, Glory finds herself being forced to share a room with her stereotypically evil stepsister. On the surface, Lillith is a bully and Glorieta will do anything to protect her friends from her. On top of the drama at home, Glory is also trying to come up with a plan to convince her Tia Diosonita to allow her mother to rest in the family camposanto in time for Los Dias de los Muerto. Days of the Dead allows us to stay close by her side as she tries to navigate this rough time in her life.

One of the biggest pet peeves when it comes to books and movies are the usages of overused and incorrect stereotypes, so I was a bit annoyed when a few characters were mostly defined by them. There is also a situation that takes place in the middle of the story that, while timely, came off as a forced attempt to make the book political. Outside of those complaints, I loved this book. The amount of growth that Glory goes through from page one to the end is amazing (but still believable) and the humor, (especially between Glory and Mateo) is hilarious.

Upon finishing Days of the Dead the first thing that popped into my head was “this was beautiful”. I plan on rereading this one several times and definitely think it belongs in the category of middle-grade books that would be perfect for adults.

Days of the Dead

by Kersten Hamilton

Skyhorse Publishing

Sky Pony Press

Children’s Fiction

Pub Date 11 Sep 2018

I am reviewing a copy of Days Of the Dead through Sky Pony Press and Netgalley:

Glorieta is happy for her Papi after he married Alice. He is able to smile again after years of not smiling and mourning her Mamma, but she is upset because after Alice moved in.

Glorieta wants changes to go her way if everything in her life is going to change. She wants to hear the stories about her Mamma who died when she was so young on the last night of los Dias de los Mueretos but that can only happen if Tia Disonita will allow Mama to be buried with the Espinosa’s in holy ground, if she will allow Mamma’s name to be spoken.

Glorieta sets out to convince Disonita that Mama is not burning in Hell with the help of her best friend and her cousin Mateo! In order to do this she will have to let the hate go and learn to love the very people who stand in her way.

I give Days of the Dead five out of five stars!

Happy Reading

This book broke my whole heart. I went into it thinking it was going to be about a girl that missed her mother and wanted her to have somewhere to rest, and I got something else entirely.

On the surface, it is as simple as this:

Glorieta Espinosa is a Mexican-American girl that lives in Epoch, New Mexico with her father and her step-mother Alice, who comes with two children, Lilith and Augus, that Glorieta has a hard time living with. When Glorieta’s father remarried, her Mamá’s ashes were locked away into a drawer because her Tia Diosonita condemned her from being buried with the rest of their family as it’s seen to be a sin to commit suicide. Glorieta simply wants her Mamá to be where Glorieta feels she deserves to rest, and she wants it in time for los Días de los Muertos so she can see her and greet her with the rest of her past relatives and loved ones.

But this book is heartbreaking in a lot of ways because it’s not just that.

Not only does it deal with the loss of a loved one in a tragic way and the steps it takes for a family to heal—especially in a particularly religious one with strict beliefs—and mental illness, but it also deals with the pains and trauma of immigration. Although it’s a middle-grade book, Hamilton delivered this as it is. All of the characters are affected deeply by the border patrol officers, and all of them have different outlooks on it.

Glorieta’s cousin, Mateo, is often late to school to make sure his family is safe. Her own father looks down on with some disdain. Father Francis does what he can and risks himself in the process, calling them refugees. More than I can count, it was rattling to read this bone-deep fear of the border patrol officers because then Glorieta is confused for an illegal immigrant because her birth certificate can’t be found quickly enough. It was heartbreaking to read Glorieta wonder why these people that didn’t know her, had never even met her, hated her so much hurt. It makes you wonder how many confused kids think these things and no one can really answer them without also showing the cruel reality of humans and they don’t deserve that.

So although this was a middle-grade book that didn’t take me much time to read, it packed a very emotional and painful punch under the surface. It dealt with a lot of things like death, mental illness, immigration and deportation, religion, and family and what that means sometimes—things that are a bit hard to believe they were found in a children’s book, but appreciated for that fact all the same.

Glorieta has a problem. She has a new step-mother, Alice, and step-sister, Lilith and brother, Angus, but she doesn't want any of these things. She just wants her mother's ashes back out where they were before her father remarried. Lilith is not nice to her. Alice is busy, as is her father. Why can't any of them see how important that, despite her mother committing suiside, that she be allowed to be buried in the church.

There are several things going on here, including ICE coming by to arrest people, because they can. And Day of the Dead is coming, and Glorieta is hoping to honor her mother this year.

And Lilith doesn't want to be here, with her mother. She wants to be back in Los Angeles, with her Dad.

It is a sweet, moving story, and Glorieta does not give up, and works hard to get what she wants.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Days of the Dead by Kersten Hamilton is a beautiful, complex story about family, tradition, and bravery. Glorieta Magdalena Davis Espinoza doesn't want the memories of her mother to fade. No one in her family speaks of her mother, since she is guilty of “mortal sin.” Now that Glorieta’s father has remarried and her mother’s ashes tucked away, Glorieta decides that her mother deserves a rightful resting place in the town cemetery.

But tradition prevents her mother from being laid to rest in a proper cemetery. And with Glorieta’s Tia Diosonita as the town’s La Patrona, the boss, there is no way Glorieta will be able to persuade her Tia to give her mother a proper burial. To make things more problematic, the mounting “odio” (hate) Glorieta feels for her cruel stepsister, Lilith, helps fuel the fire for Glorieta to break tradition. With the support of her best friend River and her cousin Matteo, Glorieta takes a stand to change the rigid old ways of her town.

I really enjoyed reading this book, even though there are some very heartbreaking parts to it. It was like peeling away the layers of an onion. The book touches on everything from grief and fear to religion, folk tales, and tradition. You really feel for Glorieta because what she wants seems simple: to bury her mother with the rest of the Espinoza family. It means a lot to her, especially with Dia de los Muertos coming soon. As the layers of the onion shed, you find out more about Tia Diosonita and why she is so strict in her ways. You peel even more layers and you find out why Lilith is such a bully. Even the layers of Glorieta peel away when she experiences something so severe, that it changes the way she thinks about human life. Once you get to the core of the story, you will find how all of this affects Glorieta and how she uses this new understanding of others to change the town’s deep-rooted ways. I would recommend this book for grades 4-7. A great read!

This story is told by Gloriet's perpective. A teenage girl who really want her mother's family tell a story at that special night. Especially, after her Papi married Alice, the urn that contained her Mama's ashes had been hidden in a drawer.

Not only about how Glorieta struggle to stay at her home with her stepsister and stepbrother that make her life changed. But, it tells a story about all illegal immigrant in Mexico as well. How hard their sacrifice to hide from the Border Patrol in order to keep staying with their family.

This is a pretty simple story, but it contains enough ideas and emotional heft to stick with me for a long time. It's also having a strong charachter development. Although it has a lot of emotions heft but it is not overly heft for teens. Overall, this E-Arc not only have a pretty cover design but also have a beautiful and great story inside.