Puppy Love

Thirteen-year-old Jordan Mendoza thinks his height will give him an advantage while playing on his school’s basketball team, until he misses a game-winning shot in front of the entire gym, including his crush Sierra. While hanging out near a local canal—where he often goes to think and, more recently, to avoid his classmates’ humiliating teasing—Jordan notices and rescues a helpless puppy struggling to swim in the freezing waters. After bringing it to a local shelter and returning home to sleep, Jordan has a dream that urges him back to the canal, where he finds another pooch. Subsequent visions lead to more canine rescues, and after Jordan redeems his skills on the court by scoring the winning basket in an important game, he grows closer to Sierra, who invites him to help her clean up litter around the canal. But when Jordan’s excursions implicate him in a drug-related crime, the resulting inquiry threatens everything he’s worked so hard for. Jordan is a protagonist worth rooting for; through his compassionate and earnest POV, Soto (Lucky Luis) spins each seemingly disparate narrative into a cohesive and lightly socially conscious read. Most characters read as Latinx. Ages 8–12. (June)