Lola Reyes is SO Not Worried

Rodriguez, Cindy L. Lola Reyes Is So Not Worried 

September 17, 2024 by HarperCollins

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Lola and her mother are in Guatemala, at her Abuela Gloria's house for her father's memorial service. He passed away suddenly from a heart attack, but Lola's mother maintains that they will be fine, and Lola is surviving. She does snoop around in her father's childhood bedroom, and finds a set of worry dolls in a wooden box. She's intrigued by them, and brushes off the notes that they are "cursed", figuring that her father put that warning on them in the same way people out notes on diaries. She smuggles them back home, where she is ready to start 5th grade. Her neighbor, Chance, is her academic rival, and her mother is the principal at her school, where she becomes "Dr. Reyes". Lola is a little worried that her best friend, Ashlynn, is going to drop her in favor of Josie, but she has bigger worries-- the worry dolls have come to life. She asks Chance for help when they are running around her back yard, and they think they corral them into a gardening bench, but they escape. Lola and Chance try to track them down, since there was a note that said they would grow and then explode after six days, releasing the worries that they have absorbed back into the world. They manage to find Mateo in the laundromat, and comfort Sabrina, an 8th grader at their school who is struggling with relationship problems, and find Isabel at school, where Ashlynn is worried about the fact her mom has lost her job. Ricardo is found at the pool, where Josie is worried about her swimming career, Mercedes at Chance's house, since he's worried about having friends, and Carlos in the art room at school. On the night of the school Open House, which Dr. Reyes has to plan, a seven foot tall Zoraid is on the loose, fed by Lola, Ashlynn, and Josie's friend drama, as well as Lola's concerns about her mother's appearance of doing okay. Clearly, once all the dolls are gathered, Lola must figure out how to control them, and she manages to figure out that some apologies are necessary to put the past to rest.

Strengths: On the surface, this was a somewhat goofy, magical adventure with some deeper messages that teachers and librarians will appreciate. It's good to see Chance and Lola working together, although even that causes some very realistic tension with her friend Ashlynn. The Guatemalan cultural connections work well in the story, and I would have loved to see more of Abuela Gloria. One of my favorite fantasy books is Waugh's The Mennyms, so life sized, sentient dolls made sense to me! 
Weaknesses: This is one of those books that 6th graders will love, but 8th graders will not pick up because of the sentient dolls. If this had a different style of cover, and Lola was in 8th grade, it would find a lot more readers. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy fantasy stories where a child deals with grief, like Grant's A Green Velvet Secret, Sugiura's Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind or Kelkar's That Thing About Bollywood.

On a personal note: Dr. Reyes is doing an astounding job keeping everything from unraveling, and she should be left alone. The only thing she might have done differently was to get Lola into grief counseling, which is one of those things that is done with today's younger generations. I'm still of the opinion that if people don't want to talk about their feelings, they shouldn't have to. Also, children do NOT need to know how their parents are feeling, as long as their parents are supportive and meet all of the children's physical and emotional needs. I'm not sure that the trend of encouraging children to share their worries with friends is that great an idea, but it's certainly a very widespread one. It's very apparent that I am from the "slap some dirt on it" generation.