This week, I’m honored to be speaking with this year’s Newbery Medal winner, Donna Barba Higuera, author of The Last Cuentista.

In the book, 12-year-old Petra Peña’s suspended animation fails during the 370-year journey to a new planet after Earth is destroyed, so when all the other children are mysteriously reprogrammed and the adults purged, Petra becomes the lone bringer of Earth's now forbidden stories and her grandmother's Mexican folklore to a changing humanity.