Juana is adorable. She likes her life just like it is, and it's PERFECT. Until her Mom starts acting funny. She has a BOYFRIEND! Juana is about to learn to adapt as she learns to be open minded about new additions to her perfect life. ( )

Juana’s mother gets her hair restyled, is wearing perfume and has been spending a lot of time with a new friend named Luis. It’s possible Mami will marry Luis but Juana wonders why Mami needs to get married? It will mean a lot of changes: a move to a new house, new family members, and living with Luis after years of just Juana and Mami. Love Juana’s voice, cheerful and endearingly childlike. Some of her phrasing sounds like something you would hear a real child say. At her most serious moments, her childlike worries (needing to still be Mami’s favorite person) are authentically voiced. ( )

Juana lives with her mami and her perro Lucas in Bogotá, Columbia. Everything is lovely until Mami suddenly has a new haircut. And is wearing perfume. And lots of lipstick.

Suddenly, Juana has problemas. Big problemas.

It turns out that Mami has met Luis. And they are getting married. When Juana learns this, she tells us, "My held melted and became one big chocolate-flavored puddle."

At eighty-four pages, and with full-color illustrations on each page, this is the perfect early chapter book for children. It's filled with lots of fun Spanish words to provide windows and mirrors for young readers. ( )

This book was actually very cute and provided a very easy to follow story that tackles an issue that a lot of children these days face. I was very satisfied with this read. ( )

I received an unfinished advanced reader copy for this review. This book has an important premise that make it relatable to many children. Juana's mother is getting remarried. The story works the best where the author relates Juana's fears and insecure thoughts about this new arrangement. The pictures, while not yet in full color in the ARC copy, express just the right amount of visualization. I also liked the two-page spreads where Juana stops the movement of the story to let the reader know reasons why she likes things like her favorite soup, ajiaco, or what she knows about her mother's new boyfriend, or the few things she knows about her father who passed. While these pieces do hold the story up, there were other elements that felt unnecessary. She introduces her abulelo's sister with a full spread, but she doesn't really play an integral part of the story. The other piece I found difficult was the vocabulary. The author weaves Spanish words into the story. Sometimes the reader can figure out the meaning, but other times there is no context. The same is true of some more difficult English words like "neurotic"and "specialties" which need more context for an early chapter book. Readers of the first Juana and Lucas book will most likely enjoy this book. ( )