Iveliz, mourning the loss of her father, navigates anxiety, grief, and PTSD in this poignant novel-in-verse. Written as her personal journal, readers stand beside Iveliz as she navigates a visit from her grandmother with dementia, a complicated relationship with her mom, and fragile friendships.

I want to thank NetGalley for giving me a digital copy of “Iveliz Explains It All” to review.

I was so excited when I read the description of this book and it definitely lived up to my expectations. This is a middle grade book about Iveliz, a 7th grader who is navigating PTSD, depression, plus the regular struggles of being a middle schooler. This book deals with heavy topics including thoughts of suicide, self-harm, and death. I think that it is done very tactfully and that these plot devices serve to help the reader understand these situations or feel companionship if they themselves are in these situations.

This book is written in verse and weaves Spanish into the poems brilliantly. I love when books can blend two languages together seamlessly and this book is a perfect example. You definitely need to have at least a basic understanding of Spanish to read this book, though, so if you only speak English and you’ve never taken any Spanish this might not be the book for you. Unless, of course, you read the Kindle version in which you can highlight the words for instant translations.

While I loved the plot and the idea behind the book, the were certain storylines I found hard to follow. I thought the pacing of this book was wonderful and the poems felt like an insight into Iveliz’s journal as intended.

I love how Iveliz’s mental health diagnoses are incorporated into the story and while they are front and center in the plot, it’s not the only important part of her character.

There were parts of this book that made me ugly cry in a good way. It broke my heart because of how real the emotions on the page felt.

Overall, I would recommend this book to any kids struggling with anxiety, the loss of a parent, or having a family member with dementia. My CAWPILE score for this book was 8.57 or 4.5/5 stars.

This book is such an important and wonderful Middle Grade read.

Written in verse, this had so many amazing elements like mental health, grief, friendship and family dynamics. Read it for yourself, read it with your kids.

Such a beautiful book.

“Iveliz Explains It All” is a novel in verse by Andrea Beatriz Arango. The book tells the story of Iveliz, a 12-year-old Latina girl who navigates seventh grade while facing mental health challenges. Iveliz retreats into her poetry and journal to cope with depression and PTSD. Her abuela Mimi’s arrival from Puerto Rico means a chance to feel like a family again, filling in the space left by her father’s absence. But Mimi’s Alzheimer’s has progressed since the last time Iveliz saw her, and Iveliz’s fraught relationship with her distant, always working Mami doesn’t help to keep the peace either. Meanwhile, her friendship with Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, seems to be on the rocks, and Iveliz keeps getting in trouble at school thanks to bullies, an ill-conceived revenge plot, and awkward attempts to forge a new friendship. Going to therapy and managing her medication also eat away at Iveliz even as she tries to find solace in visions of her dad. Full of heartbreak and compassion, Arango’s debut crackles with refreshing frankness and wit. The author excels at building Iveliz’s voice through each poem, leading to a tale that’s quick to read yet hard to put down.

This is a great middle-grade book about family, fitting in, mental health, and loss. In short prose as written by Iveliz in a journal that her father gave her, Arango spools out the story of a girl dealing with middle school while battling depression (for reasons I won't mention because it's better to have that naturally develop in the story) and helping to care for her grandmother who has moved into her home while battling alzheimer's. It is a quick read and I have already recommended it to tweens and teens in my library for the story and in case they see parts of themselves in the character of Iveliz. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the early access to this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

This novel in verse is such a valuable story to have in classroom libraries for students to see and feel a character to connect to themselves, and see just what others may be dealing with.

Beautiful writing. Arango really gets you into Iveliz's head. Not a light read but one 100% worth reading!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

CW: PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, loss of a parent, dementia, and grief

This beautifully emotional novel in verse follows Iveliz, a 7th grader who’s struggling with her mental health, but determined to have a good school year. She plans to make new friends, stay out of trouble, and help her Mimi with her transition from Puerto Rico to Baltimore. Unfortunately, things don’t go Iveliz’s way. Bullies are constantly provoking her and Mimi is suffering from dementia, which makes it hard for Iveliz to communicate with her. One thing is clear though, Mimi doesn’t approve of Iveliz’s medicine, even though it makes her less sad.

This book 🥺❤️ While it’s written in verse, the plot moves through a series of journal entries which makes it so raw and vulnerable. I loved the relationship between Iveliz and Mimi. Iveliz trying to face her own mental health struggles, while feeling responsible for the well-being of her Mimi perfectly illustrates how roles reverse in these situations causing children to mature quickly. I also adored Iveliz’s friend, Amir. He was the absolute sweetest. I can’t even imagine how he was feeling through all of this, but he always prioritized Iveliz and her feelings.

This book will resonate with people of all ages, but is perfect for middle school. It normalizes therapy and taking medication which my students absolutely need to see. I can’t wait for it to be on my shelves this fall!

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhousekids for the E-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a well-written novel in verse focusing on mental health. I appreciated how the topic was handled by the author. The character and events felt fairly realistic and I like that Iveliz's journey was presented with ups and downs. Sometimes books about mental health can wrap things up with a pretty bow. The author allowed Iveliz's journey to be a bit messy, as tends to be the case in the real world. The other characters also learned and grew- nobody was perfect and the author allowed the space for them to learn from one another. This would be a great book club book because I can see it being a great way to start conversations.

I initially DNFed this book because I wasn't aware that the dead-parent trope was used, but I decided to finish it again later because Iveliz, minus the traumatic event, reminded me a lot of myself as a kid. I was struggling and thought I had no healthy outlet at school, and whenever I inevitably snapped at someone, I was labeled a kid who likes to fight and get in trouble (no matter how good my grades and attendance were). I honestly regret DNFing this book at first now, because it would've been perfect for me at 8 or 9, and to anyone who can't relate to it, I still recommend reading it so you can better understand the kid at school who's always being punished.

Verdict: A relatable and powerfully touching story about a young girl dealing with grief and mental health issues.

Why is it that principals
love giving second chances?
- first line

This book deals with mental health, grief, and teen friendship issues realistically and compassionately. Iveliz writes down her feelings and experiences in a poetry journal. She is dealing with serious trauma and feelings of guilt. She talks about how her Puerto Rican grandmother (suffering from Alzheimer's) criticizes her for taking medication and how that makes her feel. This is a powerful book and will help readers who are going through similar experiences. Readers who have no experience with similar issues will finish with a better understanding of people who do. This book is important for middle-grade readers and highly recommended for school libraries.

Such a beautiful, haunting book about grief. We definitely need more books for middle grade readers that tackle tough topics like losing a parent, and this is an excellent one to add to our shelves. I loved Iveliz and her voice was so powerful and authentic. I am looking forward to reading more from this author!

"A powerful, and accurate depiction of PTSD, anxiety, and depression after a traumatic event. The story is told in poetry and journal entries from Iveliz's perspective as she deals with her grandmother who has dementia moving in, bullies at school, and her own PTSD. A fascinating look at how different cultures view and treat mental illness.

Trigger warnings for this book should be taken seriously. "

I really liked this novel written in verse. To see Iveliz work through her mental health without seeing the whole picture right at the beginning of the story was perfectly disorienting as this is often how it feels for the person working through it themselves. I would recommend this award winner to any reader who has ever experienced loss. To any reader who has ever had to work through their emotions and to any reader who has ever known anyone who has.

This book focuses on Iveliz who has PTSD. It shows how hard fitting into school and dealing with the traumatic loss of her father affects her life.

If you saw my “Sunbearer Trials” tour vlog, you might recall that I said this is one of those books that, when you read it, you just know that it’s going to mean so much to so many people. And I still believe that with every fiber of my bring. This is the kind of story that can and will change people’s lives.

Iveliz Explains it All is such a heartfelt and insightful story that tackles some really big questions about the intersections of Latinidad and mental health, and the generational disparities that further contribute to those struggles—especially how exhausting and impossible it can feel to explain your mental health to people who don’t experience it.

That's something Iveliz is confronting in so many different ways. On the one hand, at school and with her mom, she’s facing this stigma of how poor mental health automatically makes her a "troublemaker." With her abuela, she’s also getting this messaging about how mental illness is this newfangled issue that younger generations have simply made up.

It’s exhausting for Iveliz to not only experience the depression, anxiety, and PTSD that she’s going through, but then it’s almost impossible for her to convey that experience to the people around her who think that, just because she’s a kid, they should more of a say about her mental health than she does.

In so many ways, this story is about gaining and exercising a sense of agency, even when it doesn’t go the way we want it to. It’s about learning how to better love ourselves and the people around us, and it’s about learning how to express emotions in healthy ways. And I think what’s so great about it is that Iveliz’s journey is not linear. It’s not about going through a bad thing, taking meds, going to therapy and then everything fixes itself, but rather how all those different facets of her emotional and mental health are an ever-changing, ongoing process.

She’s actually already in therapy and on meds when the story begins. She already has documented history of mental illness. Because that's the narrative baseline, you see how that both works *for* her and *against* her sometimes. It’s a good thing, because that means her mom takes it seriously and has these established resources, but it can also be a bad thing, because it creates this misconception that there’s a “perfect fix” for what she's going through.

I feel like the story is really about how it’s so scary and feels impossible sometimes to let people really see what you’re going through, but how it’s so much more exhausting and draining to try to shut people out and put up this pretense that everything’s okay when it’s actually not.

I love that this is a story about a family reckoning with loss, with fear, with mental and physical health, but also about them learning how to better love and support each other even through the unpredictability of life. It is truly a stunning book that is going to help so many people from all walks of life. I couldn't possibly give it any less than five stars.

I love this story! A heartbreaking story about the grief that resumes after losing a loved one told from the perspective of a young girl.

A beautiful story about a brave girl. Iveliz teaches us about grief, friendship, and how therapy can help us cope with life's hardships. Told in gorgeous verse, this story is one I will be re-reading and sharing with all my fellow teachers. I could relate to this character in more ways than one and am looking forward to Andrea's next book!

This book is incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking. Arango tells the story of Iveliz, a 7th grader with PTSD after the tragic death of her father in a car accident she blames herself for. This book explores the harsh realities of grief, mental health and how to interact with others through all of that. Barnes and Noble lost out big time by choosing to not shelve this.