California teen Cecilia faces a difficult decision: Her confirmation is near, and she needs to choose a patron saint who represents her don, or celestial gift.Cecilia has no clue where to start. While she is impatient with her family's Mexican Catholic culture and traditions, her white best friend, Julie, is fascinated and urges Cecilia to start taking the task of discovering her gift seriously. Following Cecilia's mother's stillbirth at 20 weeks, the community holds a kermés carnival, to raise money to send the family to Santa Cecilia, Mexico, to bury her sister before her soul reaches heaven. The girls' Ethiopian immigrant classmate joins in the spiritual quest as the trio interview community members about their don stories. The more people they speak with, the more questions they have about the spiritual world. They discuss beliefs such as that a child receives a soul and is a person at conception and that the Sandy Hook shooter was possessed by the devil. While the element of honoring grief through ritual is handled well, Cecilia's two main quests are, disappointingly, left unresolved. This very slow-paced and excessively long novel allows readers to witness the girls' spiritual journeys as they accept the presence of angels, the afterlife, and the devil and promise to fight evil through doing good in their lives.Despite lacking the adventurous content suggested by the title, this may appeal to readers exploring their faith. (Fiction. 12-14)

GR 69- Cecilia's confirmation is fast approaching, but she has yet to choose a patron saint or discover what her don, or special gift or ability, is. After Cecilia's mother loses her baby sister in stillbirth, the community comes together to raise money to send Cecilia's family to go to Mexico for the burial. This sets off a chain of events that come together with Cecilia's search for a patron saint and don, and leave Cecilia more lost than ever. Even though Cecilia feels that her classmates will ridicule and bully her if they learn of her family's beliefs, her good friends Julie and Lebna love Cecilia's culture and wish to make it a part of their science project. Just when things become more difficult, Cecilia is chosen as an apprentice to Doña Faustina, who reveals the return of an ancient evil, and that it will take a miracle for someone to receive the gift to be able to defeat him. Providing insight into Mexican Catholic culture, beliefs, and traditions, this title also delves into the difficulties faced when juggling two different cultures, as well as the importance of keeping traditions alive. Cecilia and her friends consider good and evil on their journey, and discover that the spiritual worldand their own worldis much more complex than they could have imagined. VERDICT Although the ending comes abruptly, readers interested in Mexican Catholic culture and traditions will find much in this title.Selenia Paz, Harris County P.L., Houston