Anika Fajardo

"Magical Realism for Non-Believers is set against the backdrops of Colombia and the United States (particularly Minneapolis) of the mid-1990s, and flashes back to the unsettled freedoms of the 1970s. It's the story of a half-Colombian, half-Minnesotan exploring her past and discovering her future, taking readers on a journey from the US to Fajardo's birthplace in Colombia and the discovery of a half-brother she never knew existed, to the creation of her own family in Minneapolis"--

A Memoir of Finding Family

Magical Realism for Non-Believers

A whimsical and unflinchingly honest generational story of family and identity where hats turn into leeches, ghosts blow kisses from lemon trees, and the things you find at the end of your fishing line might not be a fish at all. Half-Colombian Eddie Aguado has never really felt Colombian. Especially after Papa died. And since Mama keeps her memories of Papa locked up where Eddie can’t get to them, he only has Papa’s third-place fishing tournament medal to remember him by. He’ll have to figure out how to be more Colombian on his own. As if by magic, the perfect opportunity arises. Eddie—who’s never left Minnesota—is invited to spend the summer in Colombia with his older half-brother. But as his adventure unfolds, he feels more and more like a fish out of water. Figuring out how to be a true colombiano might be more difficult than he thought.

What If a Fish

For fans of Rebecca Serle and Elizabeth Acevedo, a magically insightful novel about a woman's journey to discover her roots and what it means to carry our ancestors with us. In the span of a year, Dolores Moore has become a thirty-five-year-old orphan. After the funeral of the last living member of her family, Dorrie has never felt more lost and alone. That is, except for a Greek chorus of deceased relatives whose voices follow her around giving unsolicited advice and opinions. And they’re only amplifying Dorrie’s doubts about keeping the deathbed promise she made to return to her birthplace in Colombia. Fresh off a breakup with her long-term boyfriend, laid off from her job as a cartographer, and facing a daunting inheritance of her mothers’ aging Minneapolis Victorian and two orange tabbies, how can she possibly leave the country now? But when an old flame offers to housesit, the chorus agrees that there’s no room for excuses. Armed with only a scrap of a handdrawn map, Dorrie sets off to find out where—and who—she came from.

The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore

When seventh-grade classmates Mattie Gómez and Mercedes Miller realize they have the same Colombian father, they hatch a plan to run away from a school field trip to meet him for the first time.

Meet Me Halfway

"Describes food and farming practices in colonial America"--

The Dish on Food and Farming in Colonial America

When new classmates Mattie and Mercedes meet and realize they have the same Colombian dad, the two team up in a Parent Trap–inspired misadventure to meet him for the first time in this sharp and poignant middle grade novel about the bonds that make a family. Mattie Gomez feels directionless after being uprooted from her beloved Minnesota and forced to move in with her new stepfamily in California. So when she meets a girl at her new middle school who looks exactly like her, she’s not sure what to make of it. But her doppelganger, the popular Mercedes Miller, doesn’t like it one bit. Mercedes is used to getting what she wants, when she wants; Mattie would rather be invisible and blend into the background. Mercedes lives in a big empty house with her nanny; Mattie’s new home is packed-to-the-gills, twenty-four/seven chaos. Mercedes has a short fuse; Mattie is a planner. Though they may look alike, the two of them couldn’t be more different. Soon enough, however, Mattie and Mercedes learn that they have at least one thing in common: a dad from Colombia that neither of them has ever met. Determined to meet the father they’ve never known, these polar opposites suddenly have to work together to fake sleepovers, evade their friends, and plot daring escapes from school field trips in an effort to track down him down. If only they could stop bickering long enough to get the show on the road.

A young woman from Minnesota searches out the Colombian father she's never known in this powerful exploration of what family really means He loved Colombia too much to leave it. The explanation from her Minnesotan mother was enough to satisfy a child's curiosity about her missing father. But at twenty-one, Anika Fajardo wanted more. She wanted to know her father better and to know what kind of country could have such a hold on him. And so, in 1995, Fajardo boarded a plane and flew to Colombia to discover a birthplace that was foreign to her and a father who was a stranger. There she learns that sometimes, no matter how many pieces you find, fitting together a family history isn't easy. With her tentative entry into her father's world, Fajardo steps on a path that will take her in surprising directions, toward unsuspected secrets about her family and herself. Set against the changing backdrops of Colombia and the American Midwest, her journey carries her back to the 1970s and the beginnings of her parents' broken marriage, and forward to the present day, where the magic and reality of love and heartache--and her own experience as a parent--await her. The way is strewn with obstacles, physical and metaphysical--from the perils encountered on a mountain road in Colombia to the death of a loved one to the birth of her own child--but the toughest to negotiate are the shifting place of memory and truth while coming to understand her place in her family and in the world. Vivid and heartfelt in the telling, Fajardo's story is powerfully compelling in its bridging of time and place and in its moving depiction of self-transformation. Family, she comes to find, is where you find it and what you make of it.

You are the mighty Greek hero Hercules. As a half-god, you are stronger than mere humans. You've faced many challenges. But now you face your most difficult test yet. The goddess Hera has given you a task worthy of a god complete the dangerous 12 labors and live forever. Can you survive and win your immortality? Full-page illustrations, interactive stories, and multiple endings transport you back to ancient Greece and into Hercules' adventures from Greek mythology."

Hercules and His 12 Labours

"Interactive adventures about the mythical Greek hero Hercules and his 12 labors in You Choose format"--

Anika Fajardo

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