Eleven-year-old (nearly twelve) Celi Rivera, who is a mix of Black-Puerto Rican-Mexican Indian is uncomfortable about her approaching period, and the changes that are happening to her body; she is horrified that her mother wants to hold a traditional public moon ceremony to celebrate the occasion--until she finds out that her best friend Magda is contemplating an even more profound change of life.

"Betita, de nueve ąos, sabe que es una grulla. Papi le cont̤ la historia desde antes que su familia emigrara a Los Ángeles buscando refugio de la guerra del narco en México. Los aztecas proced̕an de un lugar llamado Aztlán, en lo que es hoy el sureste de Estados Unidos, cuyo nombre significa 'tierra de las grullas', y establecieron su gran ciudad en el centro del universo: Tenochtitlán, la actual Ciudad de México. Cuenta una profeséa que...

"La vida de Celi Rivera es un torbellino de preguntas... por los cambios en su cuerpo, por sentirse atraída por un chico por primera vez y por la exploración que hace su mejor amiga de lo que significa ser género fluido. Pero, sobre todo, por la insistencia de su madre en hacerle una ceremonia lunar cuando le llegue su primer periodo. Se trata de un ancestral ritual mexica que Mima y su comunidad han rescatado, pero Celi se promete a sí misma...

Nine-year-old Betita and her parents fled Mexico after her uncle was killed by the cartels, and settled in Los Angeles seeking political asylum and safety in what her father calls Aztlan, the land of the cranes; but now they have been swept up by by the government's Immigration Customs Enforcement, her father deported back to Mexico, and Betita and her mother confined in a family detention camp--Betita finds heart in her imagination and the picture...

"Fabio flies through the streets of Bogotá on his bicycle, the children of his neighborhood trailing behind him. It is there that life feels right-where the world of adults, and their lies, fades away. But then one day, he simply forgets. Forgets how to ride his bicycle. And Fabio will never be the same again. = Fabio vuela por las calles de Bogotá en us bicicleta, seguido por los niños de su barrio. Es allí donde la vida es genial, donde el mundo...

For Angela, it came on the basketball court--while playing on the boys' team. For Penny, it came on a school field trip to the lake (making for some cringeworthy moments of humor). And to Layla's disappointment, it came at the start of her first fasting Ramadan, meaning that she won't be able to fast after all. Whether it spurs silence or celebration, whether the subjects are well prepared or totally in the dark, the young people in these sixteen...

An essential, highly relatable collection of short fiction and poems around the topic of menstruation, written exclusively by authors who are Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color
For Angela, it came on the basketball court—while playing on the boys' team. For Penny, it came on a lakeside field trip, inspiring some cringeworthy moments of humor. And to Layla's disappointment, it came at the start of her first fasting Ramadan,

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