An Appetite for Miracles


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Laekan Zea Kemp
 Cover art copyright © 2023 by Soni López-Chávez. Cover design by Karina Granda. Cover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
 Interior design by Michelle Gengaro-Kokmen.
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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Kemp, Laekan Zea, author.
 Title: An appetite for miracles / Laekan Zea Kemp.
 Description: First edition. | New York ; Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 2023. | Audience: Ages 14 & up. | Summary: With the help of her cousin and their friends, Danna scours the city, searching for her grandfather’s favorite foods and hoping the remembered flavors will bring back his memories.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022016377 | ISBN 9780316461733 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780316461948 (ebook)
 Subjects: CYAC: Novels in verse. | Grief—Fiction. | Dementia—Fiction. | Food—Fiction. | Families—Fiction. | Mexican Americans—Fiction. | LCGFT: Novels in verse.
 Classification: LCC PZ7.5.K46 Ap 2023 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022016377
 ISBNs: 978-0-316-46173-3 (hardcover), 978-0-316-46194-8 (ebook)
 E3-20230303-JV-NF-ORI
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Danna
 
 Alphabet Soup
 Shadow Puppets
 Dear God
 
 Raúl
 
 Nemesis
 Nobody Knows
 Lost
 
 Danna
 
 Sunday Cena
 Fault Lines
 Seconds
 Just Like You
 Lists
 
 Raúl
 
 Combustible
 Safe
 Masks
 The One
 Armor
 
 Danna
 
 Third Period
 A Haiku about Math
 Rescue
 Drifting
 Stain
 
 Raúl
 
 Spark
 Salvage
 Mr. 
 
 For my grandfather Marcelino.
 They took your name and so much more. But with every story, I’m taking it back.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Danna
 
 
 
 
 Alphabet Soup
 
 When I was little
 you fed me
 alphabet soup.
 
 
 You placed the spoon
 in my hand,
 showed me how
 to swirl