Iveliz Explains It All

 Arango, Andrea Beatriz.  Iveliz Explains It All. Yearling, 2023.

Pages:  288

Age Range:  12-16  

Genre: realistic fiction; novel in verse

Setting: Baltimore, Maryland

Themes:  mental health, friendship, dementia, grief, therapy, family    

Merits: This book is very well written, and it tackles difficult issues with compassion and candor.  Iveliz lets readers inside of her mind, and that helps readers to understand her and build empathy when dealing with real people who handle what she does.

Unique Quality: This serious topic is shared with insightful poetry using various forms such as acrostic and list.

Detractors: 

Iveliz has suffered the loss of her father, and she is not willing to let him go. She sees him and talks to him, and the reader doesn’t realize his loss until midway through the book.  Iveliz wants to connect with family, yet her grieving mother is detached and strict; Iveliz feels close to her grandmother who has moved from Puerto Rico, yet she has dementia; thus, Iveliz is losing another close relative.  Both of these losses could trigger readers who also have suffered loss.

Iveliz reacts in anger at certain events, and resorts to physical altercations since she can’t control that anger.

Iveliz also ponders why she is alive when others are not.  She wishes she had died instead of her father.  She ponders leaving this world and mentions cutting, yet she does not choose either of these terrible choices, and seeing her come to that realization, although a serious topic readers may not be ready for, is actually positive in this book and could be helpful to readers who also question their  lives.  

Main Characters:

Iveliz Margarita Snow Medina - a seventh grader who has anger issues and is often talked about by others in her school since people speculate about her mental health.  Iveliz questions why she survived an accident when her father did not.  She had distracted her father, and she feels his death is her fault.  She needs friends, but she is so involved in her own trauma that she can’t be a good friend.

Mom - Iveliz’s mother has lost her husband; she seems to be no-nonsense, and she doesn’t speak of her husband.  She works a great deal to make sure the family has what it needs, and she does her best to get help for Iveliz while also taking care of her mother who suffers from dementia.

Mimi- Iveliz’s Puerto Rican grandmother.  She cooks and loves to garden. She has dementia, but she can remember much of the past and tells Iveliz about her grandfather.  Mimi des not approve of Iveliz’s medication and says she does not need it.

Dr. Alex - He is Iveliz’s therapist, whom she first refers to as Dr. Turnip, because she does not see him as helpful. When he finally breaks through her resistance for help, she realizes how much he can do to help her and her mother become a family again.

Amir - a boy from Afghanistan who moved into the school district the previous year. He and Iveliz are friends, but she doesn’t always remember that he may need a friend also.

Akiko - a new student who also becomes a friend to Iveliz.

Plot:

Iveliz does poorly in school and does not seem able to pay attention, but she loves her exploratory class, gardening.  There she thrives, and this joy of gardening carries over to him when Mimi, Iveliz’s Puerto Rican grandmother, moves into their apartment. Mimi has dementia, and Iveliz includes in her rules to be patient when she has to repeat things to Mimi.  Mimi misses Puerto Rico, so Iveliz works with Mimi to develop a rooftop garden where they plant gandules, also known as pigeon peas, which Mimi used while cooking in Puerto Rico. They may not grow in Baltimore’s climate, but Mom ordered the seeds, and Mimi was set on planting them, so Iveliz works hard to make this garden grow.  

The garden and spending time with Mimi are all that bring Iveliz joy.  She and mother don’t share that warm, fuzzy relationship that Iveliz has with her Mimi. And her father is not always there. So Iveliz feels alone most of the time. She gets angry easily, and when she is teased at school, she acts before she can control her feelings, thus creating another rule, to not be sent to in-school suspension again. Iveliz writes in her journal a great deal, and when someone at school takes it and reads part aloud, she hits the student, now earning out of school suspension.

Iveliz tries to share everything with her friend Amir, but they eventually get into a fight when he tells her that she is not being a good friend.  Iveliz is hurt.  She tries to be a good friend. Amir reminds her that others have troubles too, so Iveliz tries to be a better listener, despite how terrible things are for her. Her grandmother lets herself out of the apartment and gets lost.  Iveliz feels guilty for not keeping a better eye on her and for not telling her mother that she had found Mimi outside one time before. Guilt also surrounds Iveliz about her father and the “accident.”  That’s what her mother calls it. But Iveliz knows that it was not an accident.  It was her fault.  She had distracted her father with a joke as he drove her to a poetry reading that she nagged him to take her to - that’s when it happened.  And it was her fault. 

Iveliz feels like everything is her fault, and she questions whether she should be alive.  She ponders cutting to feel something; she ponders dying.  And she rationalizes why neither is a solution. 

Mom takes her back to therapy, and at first Iveliz just tells Dr. Alex what he wants to hear, but he knows that is not really what Iveliz feels.  It takes awhile, but eventually Iveliz opens up about all that is happening with her emotions and the lack of effect from her medications, of which Mimi does not approve, and Dr. Alex is able to help her and her mother talk and share their grief so as to begin healing the wounds in their family.