Who wrote the 2022 Newbery Medal winner The Last Cuentista?

Donna Barba Higuera wrote the 2022 Newbery Medal winner The Last Cuentista.

Published in 2021 by Levine Querido, the middle-grade science-fiction novel follows Petra Peña, one of the last humans to leave a doomed Earth. During a centuries-long journey to a new planet, Petra preserves family stories and Mexican storytelling traditions while confronting a society that has tried to erase memory and culture.

The Association for Library Service to Children awarded Higuera the 2022 Newbery Medal for the book. The title “cuentista” refers to a storyteller, making storytelling central not only to the plot but also to the novel’s ideas about identity, resistance, and survival.

A frequent mix-up is the award year: the novel appeared in 2021, but it received the 2022 medal. Amina Luqman-Dawson won the 2023 Newbery for Freewater, while Tae Keller won in 2021 for When You Trap a Tiger.