I love this book. It's written in level one language for Spanish language learners. It would be accessible to advanced beginners, at the end of level 1 or easily at level 2. It is mostly in the present tense.
This is the first reader for language learners I have read that is written using gender-inclusive Spanish. I read it slowly and thoroughly because of that. The authors are non-binary and live in Massachusetts and Uruguay. The care with which it was written is evident.
I love it so much for so many reasons. First, the central "problem" in the book is not ABOUT being non-binary. It's about a real and normal problem that everyone has and passes through and how friends can help friends through grief and the immobilization that comes with it. It also emphasizes boundaries when they recognize that their friend needs help but does not need them to make decisions or invade their space or disrespect their healthy boundaries. It puts mental health front and center and the difficulty of self-care and participating in daily school and social life when in the midst of it. It is something everyone can identify with. It's short and simple, but still a slow read because there is extra thinking required while seeing so many new forms of words (assuming this is a language learner's first exposure to gender-inclusive language.). This is the language being used by the community in Uruguay, which makes it as much a way to observe the evolution of the language non-critically as a way to get input as a language learner. It's simply wonderful and should be in every class library and school library and be read by all Spanish teachers and Spanish language learners.
I love that it is level one and accessible and I had to read it SLOWLY so that I could acquire all of these new words and structures that are unfamiliar to me in reading. What an excellent way to acquire the ability to communicate.
It’s a paradigm shift in CI novels that will open the door to other authors who had never considered writing and has the potential to move us beyond stories about how hard it is to... be gay, be trans etc and into genres of mystery and thrillers and science fiction with some non-binary characters and gender-inclusive language.