For Ages
10 to 14

A poignant novel in verse in which, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion. From the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.

All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending—
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym.

An Excerpt fromIt's All or Nothing, Vale

Back to School

I wake up to my pink cane

propped up against the dresser--

a spot where I know

I didn’t leave it

before going to bed.

Mami put it there while I slept,

I’m positive,

as if waking up and seeing it

would logically make me grab it,

as if its nearness to my

carefully picked out

first-day-of-school outfit

would make it the natural accessory

for my first day back.

It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her

that I don’t want it,

she doesn’t listen--

always going on and on

with her metaphors

and cutesy phrases

insisting my cane is inspirational

and lecturing me on how using it

is just like someone using glasses

and so I shouldn’t be ashamed.

But it’s not that I’m ashamed--

it’s that I’m confused.

Nervous of what everyone at school will say

if I come to class with a cane some days

but not others,

like I must be hiding a secret,

like I did virtual school

just for fun,

like whatever they heard about me,

about my accident,

about my surgeries,

has to be a lie

because the Valentina in front of them

doesn’t look injured,

is rejoining her fencing gym this week,

because

the seventh-grade Valentina in front of them?

With her Dutch braids,

frowning face,

calendar…

Under the Cover