A Maple Among Elms [2017]

Esperanza Arce has managed to stay on the outskirts of life so far. She is content to lie in the shade of the maple tree that was planted the day she was born, alone with her thoughts. That all changes on her thirteenth birthday, her first day of seventh grade. It starts with a shove in the hallway, then a destroyed schedule, then notes in her locker. Esperanza and her new friend, Gabriela, become the targets of the school bully, and the harassment increases with each passing day.

As Esperanza's life takes a turn for the worse, her maple is threatened by the surrounding elm trees that outnumber it by far. The bullying will either bring Esperanza and Gabriela closer or tear them apart. Silence is the safer option, Esperanza knows, but when Gabriela is danger, she must make her decision: watch the world she knows crumbling around her, or find the courage to speak up.

WARNINGS: bullying/cyberbullying, physical and verbal abuse, threats, xenophobia, self harm, references to suicide. I will mark specific chapters with warnings and give summaries of those chapters on the following one.

The town of Los Ebanos, New Mexico, does not exist to my knowledge, and neither does the Rodriguez Middle School. Any characters that share names to real people is a coincidence.

Written in 2016 (age 12) and edited in 2019 (age 15)