Xenia Navarro and the Magic Ants by Lois Wickstrom and Milagros Darling – Review by Santana Hicks

Xenia Navarro and the Magic Ants by Lois Wickstrom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Xenia is used to playing alone in her yard. With her mother being an illegal immigrant, she was taught to not cause trouble and to stay out of the spotlight. One day, while exploring her yard, she comes across a weird group of ants. She follows them to the garbage and watches them try to steal food. Next thing she knows a mouse appears and tries to steal the food. Xenia felt bad for the ants and tried scaring the mouse enough to drop the food. Something unexpected happened instead. The mouse turned into hundreds of ants. Xenia then decides to study them more. She has a science project she needs to do and she thinks she just found her topic.

The next day, her world is turned upside down. ICE took her mother and Xenia and her brother are left to pick up the pieces at home. She is scared that her mother will be deported and they will never see each other again. She tries to stay optimistic by focusing on the magic ants, while all hoping to be reunited with her mother.

This book was unexpected. I have read Lois Wickstrom’s stories before but this one was very different from her normal style. The book delved into some serious topics about immigrants and how they are treated. There was also a lot of Mexican culture and language mixed in with a hint of magic. The book is definitely geared towards older children but the authors did a great job at explaining the difficult topics.I was rooting for the family to be reunited. I also like that this topic was written but I could not fully enjoy the story to be honest. It felt rushed. I feel like there should have been more to the story.

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