Mischief and Monsters
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected Sep 22, 2026
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
Jordi Acosta wants nothing more than to be invisible. He’s a six-foot-tall twelve-year-old who wishes he could blend in with the rest of his classmates and avoid trouble.
Over spring break, Jordi’s mom, a wildlife biologist, has him volunteer at the Yaupon Creek Wildlife Refuge, much to his dismay. But Mami is keeping secrets, and when Jordi has a close encounter with a surprisingly humanlike bear, she comes clean: her unofficial job at the Wildlife Refuge is to care for Cryptids, creatures like the Chupacabra that are only supposed to exist in stories.
When a greedy corporation called Harvest Sunrise Energy arrives wanting to expand their drilling operations into Yaupon Creek, cattle start getting injured and fences damaged on their neighbors’ farms. Jordi and his friends realize that the company is manipulating the townspeople to believe the creatures are responsible for the damage they’ve wrought. It’s up to them to save their town from this insidious threat—and clear their cryptid friends’ names.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cuevas (What Fell from the Sky) blends cryptid folklore and concerns about book banning and environmental degradation into an inventive tale. Cuban American 12-year-old Jordi Acosta feels out of step in his small Texas town of Yaupon Creek. Towering over his peers at six feet tall, he is expected to excel at sports, but he prefers the quiet refuge of the library. At home, Jordi's mother, a biologist working at a nearby wildlife reserve, appears to lead a routine professional life—until Jordi discovers that the reserve is a covert sanctuary for cryptids, including the chupacabra. The haven is jeopardized when an energy conglomerate arrives intending to exploit the land, intensifying Jordi's mother's worries that the creatures could be exposed and unfairly blamed for a series of unexplained local livestock attacks. Meanwhile, Jordi and his friends contend with an escalating book ban that restricts access to school library materials, heightening existing community tension around information control. Fast-paced adventure rooted in a palpably rendered Texas wildlife landscape intertwines with contemporary themes of censorship, conservation, and identity. Grounding familial relationships and friendships add depth into this exciting creature feature, a timely contemporary offering. Ages 10–12.
