Kiara Alegría Hudes

And that got her into a lot of trouble.

And really, the book is about her transforming this kind of raw elemental energy that she's been overly easily tapped into, which is her rage, transforming its power into a different source and release in her life by the end of her 10-day journey in this book.

It was neat growing up in Philadelphia and hearing my elder stories from Puerto Rico, where they came from.

My abuela came with her daughters in tow, so my mom was 12 years old when they all arrived in Philadelphia.

Now, they originated in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, which is a coastal town, and they were farmers.

And there's varying points of view on why they left.

Everyone has a slightly different story.

It's quite a Rashomon sort of narrative.

Maybe they left because there had been a kind of infidelity from her partner.

Maybe they left because my eldest aunt needed better health care than was available to treat

a condition she was facing.

The thing I loved about hearing these stories is they were holy, holy, holy, unlike the world that was familiar to me.

I didn't step foot in Puerto Rico till I was nine.

So up until the age of nine, I had to just imagine what is a mountain in Puerto Rico?

What is a farm in Puerto Rico?

What is it to sleep under mosquito netting every night?

What is it to feel...

your first refrigerated drink, you know, when you're five years old because you've only had warm, fresh cow's milk.

Like, you don't have a refrigerator.

So these were real stories that to me felt like fables or imagined lands.