Donna Barba Higuera

Donna Barba Higuera is an American children's book author. Her debut novel, Lupe Wong Won't Dance, was a Pura Belpré Award honor book and PNBA winner in 2021. Her middle grade dystopian novel, The Last Cuentista, won the 2022 Newbery Medal and the Pura Belpré Medal.

Biography Donna grew up in Central California, surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. As a child, she could be found reading a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and sneaking into cemeteries to inspire her spooky tales using the headstones.

Donna's Middle Grade and Picture Books are about kids who find themselves in odd or scary situations. She explores themes such as: language and cultural differences and living a biracial life. Donna likes to write about all things funny, but also sad, and creepy, and magical.

Donna lives in Washington State with her family, three dogs and two frogs. Outside of writing, Higuera works in healthcare. In Higuera's novel, 12-year-old Petra Peña and her family are among those chosen to escape Earth before Halley's Comet collides with the planet;she will have to leave many things behind like her home, her friends, and of course her Abuelita or Grandmother. However, after waking up from a 357-year sleep, everyone's memories had been erased except Petra's. Previous Newbery winner Tae Keller said The Last Cuentista “certainly veers into the dark end of middle-grade fiction, with brainwashing, ‘purging’, and, yes, the destruction of our entire planet ... but it doesn’t dwell in the darkness, preferring to give its readers healthy doses of hope, wonder and page-turning action.”

Booklist included Lupe Wong Won't Dance on their 2021 lists of the top ten "Best Middle-Grade Debuts" and "Best Sports Books for Youth."

The Last Cuentista was named one of the best children's books of the year by BookPage, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal.

Publications

Lupe Wong Won't Dance (Levine Querido, 2020) El Cucuy Is Scared, Too!, illustrated by Juliana Perdomo (Abrams, 2021) ¡El Cucuy también tiene miedo! (expected 2023) The Last Cuentista (Levine Querido, 2021) La última cuentista, translated by Aurora Humarán (Levine Querido, 2022) The Yellow Handkerchief, illustrated by Cynthia Alonso (Abrams, 2023) Alebrijes (Levine Querido) It's Navidad, El Cucuy!, illustrated by Juliana Perdomo (2023)